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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924012215301 
 
THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES IN THE 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 BY 
 
 MARTHA ORNSTEIN, M. A. 
 
 SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
 
 FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Faculty of Political Science 
 Columbia University 
 
 NEW YORK 
 1913 
 
 w 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The History of Science may be called a stepchild in 
 the family of the Natur- und Geschichtswissenschaften. 
 It is too technical for the historical student, too bookish 
 for the man of the laboratory. Yet if we agree that it is 
 the task of the "New History" to explain what is most 
 vital and fundamental in our civilization to-day, the his- 
 torian must incorporate many a chapter of the neglected 
 History of Science into his work. For only in this way 
 will he be able to furnish that essential historic back- 
 ground for the achievements of Ehrlich and Madame 
 Curie that he is wont to give to the projects of Lloyd 
 George and King Ferdinand of Bulgaria. This assimila • 
 tion and transference of facts from the History of Science 
 to General History will naturally fall to those interested 
 equally in the facts of history and the progress of science. 
 As a member of this class, the writer has attempted to 
 describe what seems to her the most vital element in the 
 milieu in which modern science was born. 
 
 In books dealing with the histories of the various 
 sciences in the seventeenth century and in treatises 
 touching upon any phase of the intellectual development 
 of the period, a few paragraphs or pages are invari- 
 ably found emphasizing, on the one hand, that science 
 obtained its most valuable, nay indispensable, aid from 
 the scientific societies of the day, and on the other 
 hand, that the universities failed to supply such aid. 
 
 3 
 
4 PREFACE 
 
 Yet no existing work — so far as the writer knows — tries 
 to show how this aid was given and why the societies 
 were indispensable; nor is there any treatment which 
 follows the work of the universities during this period 
 and points out wherein it was inadequate. 
 
 In her attempt to supply in some measure this defici- 
 ency the author has encountered serious and to some 
 extent insurmountable difficulties in the lack of Vorar- 
 beiten dealing with the university situation, and again in 
 the nature of the subject-matter itself, which is so exten- 
 sive and varied that it has proved well nigh impossible, 
 within the compass of a dissertation, to do justice to any 
 of the many lines of inquiry. It is thus with a keen 
 sense of its incompleteness that the book is sent to the 
 press. 
 
 The author takes this opportunity to express her 
 great thanks and appreciation to Prof. James Harvey 
 Robinson who through his writings, teaching and per- 
 sonal encouragement has been her inspiration through- 
 out this work. M. O. 
 March 28, 1913. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 J FAGS 
 
 CHAPTER l/ 
 
 General Scientific Advance in the Seventeenth Century . . 9 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Role of Individual Scientists 30 
 
 Gilbert A 31 
 
 ./Galileo .'.... . . 32 
 
 Torricelli and Pascal 43 
 
 /Harvey ..--.. 45 
 
 Van Helmont .... -50 
 
 /Bacon . ~ 51- 
 
 /iDescartes". . ... 56 
 
 Guericke 64 
 
 Amateurs . 66 
 
 PART 11 
 LEARNED SOCIETIES AND JOURNALS 
 
 CHAPTER III y 
 
 Italian Scientific Societies 89 
 
 The Accademia dei Lincei . . go 
 
 TheAccademia del Cimento 93 
 
 CHAPTER IV y^ 
 
 The Royal Society no 
 
 Origin in London and in Oxford in 
 
 Establishment (1660) and Incorporation (1662) 122 
 
 Scientific Apparatus, Methods of Work and Problems 134 
 
 Publication of the Philosophic Transactions 147 
 
 Publication of Scientific Works 153 
 
 Relation to Newton 157 
 
 5 
 
6 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGB 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 The AcADEMiE des Sciences 165 
 
 Meetings at Pere Mersenne's Cell ■ I7i 
 
 • Establishment by Colbert I75 
 
 Method of Work and Problems 181 
 
 Decline after Colbert's Death (1683) 187 
 
 Reorganization and new Charter {1699) I93 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 German Scientific Societies i94 
 
 The Societas Ereunetica 198 . 
 
 The Collegium Naturae Curiosum 205 
 
 The Collegium Curiosum sive Experimentale . .... 208 
 
 Leibnitz and the Berlin Academy 230 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Scientific Journals 231 
 
 The Journal des Savants • • 236 
 
 The First Medical Journals . • • 237 
 
 The Acta Eruditorum 241 
 
 The Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres, etc 243 
 
 PART III 
 THE LEARNED SOCIETIES AND THE UNIVERSITIES 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Science in the Universities . 247 
 
 Italy 251 
 
 France 255 
 
 Germany ....... . . 262 
 
 England . 272 
 
 Holland 291 
 
 Conclusion ... 298 
 
 Appendix 305 
 
 Bibliography . . . . 314 
 
PART I 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 General Scientific Advance in the Seventeenth 
 
 Century 
 
 To any one who regards the scientific achievements of 
 our age as the most characteristic and essential elements 
 of modern civilization, and who looks at the present from 
 an historical point of view, the seventeenth century is a 
 period of great significance. For if the progress of a 
 century is shown by a comparison of the knowledge of 
 scientific facts which prevails in its first and in its last 
 decade, no other century, perhaps, can show strides in 
 the realm of knowledge equal to the seventeenth. ItV* 
 not only established the methods and the means of 
 scientific advance ; it discovered an immense number of 
 scientific facts ; it created a theory of cosmic interrelation 
 to which two centuries have added nothing ; it saw 
 moreover the commencement of the reaction of newly 
 discovered facts upon the prejudices accumulated through 
 centuries. 
 
 Rosenberger in his History of Physics says : ' 
 
 Physics before the seventeenth century knew only the methods 
 of natural philosophy and of mathematics. Both had their 
 foundation in the experiences of daily life, in the materials 
 compiled by ordinary observation ; -"^ut an experimental 
 method which created these independently did not exist^ Ex- 
 periment was used in special instances to measure relations 
 of magnitude of phenomena ; an individual inventor might 
 
 ' Rosenberger, Dr. Ferd., Die Geschichte der Physik, ii, p. 3 sq. 
 
 9 
 
lO THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 try to win from nature her secrets through experiments, but a 
 systematic questioning of nature, observation as a method in 
 physics, was not known. The physicist conceived his task as 
 the explanation of known phenomena, but did not see that he 
 had the duty of closer observation, of verification of his 
 hypothesis. The experiment was not part of science ; at best 
 
 v^it preceded it, but was of no significance in it. Hence wrong 
 statements had little to fear of detection. The realm of 
 thoughts was regarded as infinitely finer than the common 
 material world. Indeed, it would not have been a good sign 
 if philosophic statements fully coincided with experience ; and 
 it was no drawback if such statements differed from observa- 
 tion. There was still in natural philosophy something of 
 Platonic revery, of the " idea" and of scorn of matter. The 
 student of natural philosophy thought it beneath his dignity 
 to busy himself, like an artisan, outside of his study and 
 was proud to live in the realm of spirit. Thus it happened 
 that although experiments were made and cleverly made, yet 
 science was little affected by them. It was the task of the 
 
 'p seventeenth century to introduce experiment into science and 
 to make the experimental method that recognized in science. 
 
 y Rosenberger's phrase "introducing experiment into 
 science," implies indeed many elements. Objectively, it 
 
 ypresupposes the production of instruments wherewith to 
 experiment, the creation of places where, and general 
 conditions under which, experimentation can be carried 
 
 /out. gubjectiyely, it signifies creating in men high 
 standards of exact observation, and developing in them 
 experimental skill. All this the seventeenth century did. 
 As regards instruments^ it produced the microscope, 
 telescope and machinery for grinding their lenses. It 
 originated an exact time-measuring instrument in the 
 pendulum ; it brought into existence the thermometer 
 and barometer, and the air pump. It created therefore 
 the most fundamentally important apparatus of the mod- 
 ern physical laboratory. 
 
GENERAL SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE 1 1 
 
 The seventeenth century first produced the places/ 
 where, and conditions under which, experimentation could 
 be carried out. There is one exception to this state- 
 ment. Chemistry, i. e., alchemy had had its laborator- 
 ies, its furnaces, cooling and drying apparatus, mortars, 
 countless glass vessels, distilling contrivances, for many 
 preceding centuries.' The apothecary had had his dis- 
 tilling apparatus, his furnace for chemical and pharma- 
 ceutical operations." But the conception of a physicalv/ 
 laboratory and a non-alchemistic and non-pharmacologi- 
 cal laboratory was the creation of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury. To be sure the earliest laboratories were not very 
 well equipped. The bedroom or kitchen of the scientist 
 was often used as a place for experimentation. New- 
 ton's optical researches were made in his lodgings. Rob- 
 ert Boyle tested his laws of elasticity of gases in tubes 
 along the stairs.^ But before the end of the century/ 
 such informal workshops of scientists were in some rare 
 instances supplanted by laboratories in the modern 
 sense of the word, supplied with instruments of meas- 
 urement and with facilities for research work. By 1700 
 both the chemical and physical laboratory existed in 
 embryonic form.'' 
 
 The astronomical laboratory, the observatory, on ac- 
 count of its affiliation with astrology, existed much 
 earlier. But the seventeenth century created the modern 
 
 ■ For a picture of analchemistic laboratory, see Catalogue of Deutsches 
 Museum; Munich. Fig. 43. 
 
 'The Germanisches Museum, at Niirnberg, has reconstructed a 
 sixteenth-century apothecary shop in room 73: see guide p. 159. 
 
 'Cajori, F., A History of Physics, including the evolution of physical 
 laboratories, p. 288. 
 
 *The Germanisches Museum at Niirnberg has reconstructed a 
 chemical pharmacological laboratory in room 76: see guide p. 163. 
 
12 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 observator y, equipped with telescopes and fine instru- 
 ments for exact research, prepared for the task of mak- 
 ing systematic maps of the celestial regions.' The seven- 
 teenth century multiplied the establishment of botanical 
 gardens, it insisted upon the erection of anatomica l 
 theatres and consequently upon the adoption of methods 
 of dissection in the study of medicine. In most diverse 
 ViJranches of scientific work dwelling places for the culti- 
 vation of the spirit of experimentation were established. 
 The subjective side of Rosenberger's statement, " that 
 the seventeenth century introduced experiment into 
 science," signifies, as has been said, that it produced 
 scientists and scientific^ill. The truth of this state- 
 ment can best be shown perhaps, by comparing, in the 
 various scientific fields in broad outlines, the information 
 of a man familiar with the whole range of science in 
 1600 — whom we will for convenience call A — with that 
 of a man B, in 1766, similarly instructed in the entire 
 scientific knowledge of his time. The difference between 
 the scientific truths in the possession of A and B will 
 then represent, to borrow a phrase from Mathematics, 
 the "integration" of the "differential" work and skill 
 of the many individual scientists of the century. Besides, 
 we will in this way gain a clearer perception of how 
 much the seventeenth century added to the fund of 
 scientific knowledge. 
 
 Commencing with Physics, and taking up first the 
 fundamental chapter of Dynamics, A was permeated with 
 Aristotelean ideas ;' B, through Galileo, Kepler and New- 
 
 'The Greeks and Arabians used spheres. Maps of the stars originated 
 in the sixteenth century. For the earliest maps of the stars, see 
 " Deutsches Museum," Room 15 A. For astronomical instruments of 
 the seventeenth century, ibidem, Room 15 I. 
 
 'A knows, however, since Stevin (1585) the laws of motion along 
 the inclined plane. 
 
GENERAL SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE 
 
 13 
 
 ton, was in many respects at the level of present-day 
 information. The vast difference this represents may be 
 indicated as follows : 
 
 A believed that : 
 
 1. Bodies have either a nat- 
 ural motion downward or up- 
 ward. The former are called 
 heavy, the latter " positively 
 light." 
 
 2. There are two types of 
 motion : that of heavenly 
 bodies is perfect, circular, un- 
 changing ; that of earthly 
 bodies is rectilinear and re- 
 quires for its maintenance a 
 force acting continually. If 
 the force stops, it stops. 
 
 3. Bodies fall in accelerated 
 motion because as the body 
 falls the air gives it speed ; 
 hence in a vacuum (if con- 
 ceivable) bodies would fall 
 with uniform velocity. 
 
 4. Heavier bodies fall more 
 quickly than light bodies.' 
 
 B knew that : 
 
 I. All bodies are subject 
 to the force of gravitation and 
 are "heavy." 
 
 2. Every body, celestial or 
 terrestrial, continues in its 
 state of rest or of uniform 
 motion in a straight line, un- 
 less it be compelled by a force 
 to change its state. Uniform 
 rectilinear motion would thus 
 continue forever unless it met 
 resistance. " Force " is that, 
 by means of which rest or 
 motion of a body is changed. 
 
 3. Bodies fall in accelerated 
 motion because of the force of 
 gravitation ; air does not ac- 
 celerate, but impedes motion. 
 
 4. All bodies fall with uni- 
 form acceleration. 
 
 Turning from the chapter on Dynamics to Pneumatics, 
 A could not conceive of the weight of air, or of the 
 creation of a vacuum. "Nature abhors a vacuum" 
 would to him be an axiomatic truth. B would under- 
 stand the nature of atmospheric pressure (Torricelli); 
 
 ' Poggendorff , J. C, Geschichte der Physik, pp. 218 sqq. 
 
14 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 its variation in different weather, at varying altitudes : 
 He would have an airpump and know most of the proper- 
 ties of a vacuum (Guerickeand Boyle). In Hydrostatics 
 A's knowledge had been started along right lines by 
 Stevin but B would know all fundamental Hydrostatic 
 principles (Torricelli, Pascal, Mariotte). In Acoustics 
 A would know of the relation of the length of a chord to 
 the pitch; B would understand the laws of vibrating 
 chords, and know the velocity of sound (Mersenne), 
 but still be ignorant of many fundamental truths. 
 
 In Optics, A would know considerably more than in , 
 other fields ; for ever since Roger Bacon, the focal prop- i 
 erties of spherical mirrors had been understood. Maury- 
 locus (1494-1575) had studied lenses. Then Delia 
 Porta's book, Magia Naturalist contained a description 
 of the Camera Obscura, even of a combination of lenses 
 which has been claimed to be the first telescope.'' B on 
 the other hand would be acquainted with the most minute 
 details about the focal properties of lenses (Kepler and 
 Descartes) ;3 he would comprehend the laws of refraction 
 of rays passing from thinner into thicker medium (Snel- 
 lius);* he would even be initiated into the phenomenon 
 of dififraction (Grimaldi).^ He would be aware of the 
 nature of white light and its decomposition into the 
 spectral colors (Newton). He would have learned of 
 the two theories of explaining light; the corpuscular 
 theory of Newton (then accepted), and Huygens' and 
 Hooke's theory of undulation (now accepted).* 
 
 ' Delia Porta Johann Baptista, Magiae Naturalis Libri, xx [1560 
 1589]- 
 
 ' Poggendorff, op. cit., pp. 129-136. For model, Deutsches Museum, 
 Room 19 II. 
 
 'Ibid., pp. 167-174, 305. 
 
 ^Ibid., p. 311. ''Ibid., p. 339. 
 
 'Ibid., pp. 643, 668, 586 sqq. 
 
GENERAL SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE 15 
 
 In magnetism and electricity, A would be acquainted 
 only with the magnet and compass and the electric 
 properties of amber. B, although his knowledge would 
 be much less in this than in the other branches of 
 Physics, would nevertheless comprehend the phenomena 
 of terrestrial magnetism, magnetic declination and in- 
 clination ; he also would be aware of other substances 
 beside amber which exhibit electric properties (Gilbert 
 and Guericke). 
 
 In no other science did the seventeenth century, start- Y 
 ing from so little, reach so far as in Physics ; no other 
 science records during the century so many pioneer 
 experimenters. 
 
 Turning to Astronomy, and comparing the status' of 
 the science in 1600 with that in 1700, we realize that 
 astronomy in 1600 had a great start over all other 
 natural sciences. For the Copernican System had been 
 the work of the sixteenth century. But as inherited by 
 the seventeenth century, it contained two fundamental 
 errors ; it assumed circular orbits of the planets, and 
 uniform velocity for heavenly bodies. Moreover, in 
 1600 it was known to few, accepted by fewer, indeed the 
 Index had taken no notice of it as yet. A might thus 
 be an adherent of the Copernican hypothesis, or he 
 might accept Tycho Brahe's compromise cosmic system ; 
 that the moon and sun move about the earth, but that 
 Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn about the 
 sun; a system corresponding with observation and hav- 
 ing the advantage of not interfering with any biblical 
 passage. Through Tycho Brahe's discoveries A might 
 know of the existence of changeable stars, and how much 
 they outraged those that clung to the perfect unchange- 
 ability of heavenly bodies. He might know that Tycho 
 made the unprecedented claim that a comet might be 
 
1 6 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 further from the earth than the moon, and that this claim 
 aroused a storm of indignation ; for was not the comet's 
 interference in human destinies due to its proximity?' 
 
 By 1700 the telescope had utterly revolutionized the 
 science of astronomy. B, armed with it, could see in 
 the phases of the inner planets definite proofs of the 
 Copernican system. He could perceive the moons of 
 Jupiter and Saturn, and the rings of Saturn. He would 
 know that Kepler, on the basis of Tycho Brahe's observa- 
 tions, had formed empirically his famous laws. Hooke, 
 Wren, Halley had studied the laws of motion of celestial 
 bodies, and finally Newton proved the truth of the magic 
 formula that attraction varies inversely as the square of 
 distance, thus explaining all astral phenomena. With 
 this Newtonian formula any remnant of rational opposi- 
 tion to Copernicus was removed. By means of it Des- 
 cartes' elaborate explanation of celestial mechanics as 
 vortex motions was doomed before the century had ex- 
 pired which gave it birth and enthusiastic acceptance. 
 B, in the year 1700, owing to the investigations of 
 Hevelius, Huygens and Halley, would understand that 
 the paths of comets are subject to the same definite and 
 definable laws as those of planets. He had drifted so far 
 from Aristotelean ideas that sun spots, varying stars, 
 and the spheroidal shape of the earth, in no way wounded 
 his feeling of the perfection of the universe.' 
 
 In Chemistry A's and B's ideas would not be funda- 
 mentally dififerent. A's notion of Chemistry in 1600 
 would be an acceptance of Aristotle's and Paracelsus's 
 ideas. Aristotle taught that there were four fundamental 
 qualities, " humors " — coldness, warmth and dryness 
 
 ' Wolf, R., Geschichte der Astronomie, pp. 269 sqq. 
 '^ Ibid., pp. 320 sqq. 
 
GENERAL SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE 1 7 
 
 (characteristic of the solid) and wetness (connected with 
 the liquid state) . These four " humors " can be arranged 
 in four pairs ; and four elements were postulated by Aris- 
 totle as the carriers of these pairs of qualities ; earth as 
 cold and dry ; water as cold and wet ; air as wet and hot ; 
 fire as dry and hot.' In so far therefore as these ele- 
 ments were the carriers of all possible states of matter, 
 they were conceived of as the constituent parts of all the 
 material world. The varying proportion of these Aris- 
 totelean elements explained to A the dififerent physical 
 constitution of matter, the dififerent states of aggrega- 
 tion, and changes caused by the influence of temperature. 
 The rapid change of water into ice or into vapor made 
 plausible the assumption that things that seemingly were 
 most dissimilar could yet be of the same substance. 
 
 Paracelsus' idea and that of some of his predecessors 
 was that all substances consisted of mercury, sulphur 
 and salt. This search for, and acceptance of three funda- 
 mental substances, clung to throughout the seventeenth 
 century, does not seem incomprehensible if properly 
 explained. " Sulphur " does not mean the substance of 
 I sulphur, but what is burnable in matter ; " Mercury " 
 I what is volatile, brilliant, metallic; "Salt" what remains 
 in the form of ash, after a body is burnt. Every sub- 
 stance was seen to change in fire. It was evidently 
 divided into three parts ; that which burns, that which 
 escapes in volatile form and that which remains as 
 ash. This process was assumed to be necessarily a 
 simplification, a disintegration of the substance into its 
 constituent parts. ^ Hence, by a confusion of thought, 
 
 ' Kopp, Hermann, Beitrdge sur Geschichte der Chemie—Ansichten 
 uber die Aufgabe der Chemie und uber die Grundbestandiheile der 
 Korper bei den bedeutendsten Chemikern von Geber bis Stahl, p. 6. 
 
 ^Kopp, op. cit., p. 136. 
 
1 8 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 the explanation of why all substances thus changed 
 under the influence of fire was found in the assump- 
 tion that they were composed of these three elements 
 : — a typical case of medieval self-deceptive reason- 
 ing. Out of these three elements the animal, vegetable 
 and mineral kingdoms were assumed to be constituted. 
 According to Paracelsus, health was the normal propor- 
 tion of these three elements, disease the abnormal, which 
 could be cured by medicines so concocted as to. rectify 
 the wrong and re-establish the right proportion. Witlil 
 this idea the scope of chemistry was evidently enlarged,/ 
 and emphasis laid upon the importance of making mediJ 
 cines.' It became indissolubly connected with the study 
 of disease and the art of healing.^ Until the end of the 
 seventeenth century this idea persisted and both A and 
 B might have viewed chemistry's main function as lying 
 in the pharmacist's work, and think in Paracelsean fash- 
 ion of health and sickness as chemical conditions. 
 
 But B might be a follower of Robert Boyle, who stood 
 for a new kind of chemistry, divorced from alchemy and 
 medicine, claiming for it no other function but the in- 
 vestigation of natural phenomena, an end in itself. Boyle 
 insisted that, contrary to Paracelsus' ideas, fire did not 
 reduce bodies into simpler elements ; indeed, that vary- 
 ing degrees of heat created different substances, and might 
 even add to substances, while processes other than fire 
 reduced substances into simpler compounds. He further 
 
 'Kopp, H., op. cit., p. 135, foot note 198 quotes from Paracelsus' 
 book Paragranum, p. 220: " Mache Arcana und richte dieselbigen 
 gegen den Kranckheiten." 
 
 'Kopp, H., op. cit., p. 140. Er (Paracelsus) leitete hiermit das Zeit- 
 alter der medizinischen Chemie ein : die Richtung in welcher die Chemie 
 bis zur zweiten Halfte des siebenzehnten Jahrhunderts ihre Ausbildung 
 und Repraesentation fand. . . . 
 
GENERAL SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE ig 
 
 said that only those substances, which could not be 
 further divided by any known process, should properly 
 be called elements; and asserted that there was no definite 
 number of such substances. With this new conception 
 of the elements he laid the cornerstone of modern chem- 
 istry. Boyle explained the nature of chemical combina- 
 tion and was the first to see how closely physics and 
 chemistry were in touch in the investigation of natural 
 phenomena. But it must be noted that just as the 
 existence of the Copernican theory in 1600 by no means 
 meant that all astronomers were necessarily Copernicans, 
 so the existence of these advanced ideas of Boyle were 
 hardly accepted by the chemists, and B would normally 
 be a Paracelsian. 
 
 As for Botany and Zoology, A would hardly think of 
 them as independent sciences, but as parts of medicine, 
 more especially of pharmacy. Of the two, botany was 
 far in advance. Physicians had by 1600 done extensive 
 botanical work. Great and costly volumes had been 
 published throughout the sixteenth century on the 
 description of plants.' The discovery of tropical flora in 
 Africa and America had given a great impulse to botan- 
 ical study and led to the establishment of botanical 
 gardens. Slight attempts had been made at the creation 
 of a classification (Bauhin)'' and precise nomenclature 
 YJungius),^ but the most fundamentally erroneous 
 notions existed. L'Ecluse arranged flowers into two 
 groups, those that smelled sweet and those that45.had 
 no scent. And Carrichter* divided them according to 
 
 'Sachs, J., History of Botany, 1530-1850, p. 5. 
 -Ibid., p. 39- ^ Ibid., p. 30. 
 
 * Meyer, E. H. F., Geschichte der Botanik, vol. iv, p. 433. 
 
20 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 the twelve signs of the zodiak. A good summary 
 of the botanical information of tjie time may be the 
 works of Cesalpino, Professor in Padua De Plantis, 
 Libri XVI (1583). He still was in what Sachs calls the 
 alchemistic state of botany and spoke of a "soul" resid- 
 ing in the pith of the plant ; he thought of sexual organs 
 of flowers only as protecting envelopes, and that " there 
 are some plants (mushrooms) that have no seed. . . and 
 spring from decaying substances : they have only to feed 
 themselves and grow and are unable to produce their 
 like." ' 
 
 Zoology in 1600 was still in part characterized by the 
 naive credulity and lack of observation of previous cen- 
 turies. There existed a branch of "Biblical Zoology," 
 and in 1595 a book of Prey's was printed where animals 
 are described " as they exhort us to virtue and deter us 
 from vice." In 1612 a zoology was written for theolog- 
 ical students ; and in 1675 Athanasius Kircher wrote his 
 "Area Noe." '^ There could be found in 1600 the same 
 type of encyclopedic compilation of animals as existed 
 of plants (Conrad Gesner), with emphasis laid entirely 
 on a description of external characteristics and with 
 even less attempt at morphological classification than in 
 Aristotle. The dissection of animals was merely an oc- 
 casional adjunct to medical study. 
 
 By 1700 the aspect of both sciences had entirely 
 'changed. What the telescope was to astronomy, the 
 microscope was to zoology and botany. It literally 
 created a new world ; it enlivened every drop of water ; 
 it led to the discovery of minute organisn^s, infusoria 
 and blood corpuscles, and laid the foundation of His- 
 tology,3 supplanting apparent uniformity with unlimi- 
 
 ' Sachs, J. op. cit., p. 54. 
 
 'Carus, J. v., Geschichte der Zoologie, p. 309. ^Ibid., p. 428. 
 
GENERAL SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE -jl 
 
 ted complexity. It reversed the former conception that 
 interest in objects was proportionate to their size. B in 
 1700 would be aware of Grew's and Malpighi's syste- 
 matic microscopic researches of plants, whereby a new 
 branch of botany — plant anatomy — was founded ; of 
 Malpighi's, Leuwenhoeck's, Swammerdam's innumerable 
 microscopic observations of insects and lower forms of 
 animal life. He would know that gradually the study of 
 external characteristics was changing to that of internal 
 structure. John Ray and Willoughby by 1700 had 
 started to create a consistent systern of classification of 
 plants and animals based on differences of anatomical 
 structure. With emphasis thus changed, dissection of 
 animals had become the indispensable means of zoolog- 
 ical study. The truths thus disclosed led Grew to a line 
 of research out of which the science of comparative 
 anatomy was born. In botany a great step in advance 
 must be noted; Grew (1676) and, more clearly, Camerar- 
 ius (1694) had recognized sex in plants, and the signifi- 
 cance of their sex organs, and th^ laid the ground for 
 Linnaeus' revolutionary work. 
 
 The medical knowledge of A in 1600 rested in the 
 main upon Galen's teachings of physiology. The ex- 
 planations of the processes of circulation, absorption and 
 breathing then prevailing were, that food absorbed 
 from the alimentary canal is carried by the portal vein 
 to the liver and is " by that great organ " converted into 
 blood endowed with " natural spirits." This blood then 
 goes to the right side of the heart, whence most of it is 
 sent to the body along the veins in a flow followed by 
 an ebb thus securing the nourishment of all organs of the 
 body including the lungs. Some of the blood, however, 
 passes from the right ventricle through innumerable, 
 invisible pores in the septum to the left ventricle where 
 
22 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 it is mixed with air which is drawn from the lungs as 
 the heart expands. Then by the help of that heat which 
 is innate in the heart, placed there as a source of heat of 
 the body by God, the blood is laden with " vital spirits " 
 and this new kind of blood is again distributed in flow 
 and ebb along the arteries to the various parts of the 
 body, giving them the power of exercising their vital 
 functions. Blood laden with vital spirits reaching the 
 brain generates there a third species of " spirits," the 
 " animal spirits " which — pure and unmixed with blood 
 — are carried along the nerves to bring about movement 
 and carry on the higher function of the body.' 
 
 By 1700, Harvey's conception of the blood had been 
 promulgated for seventy years. Malpighi's microscopic 
 investigations disclosing the structure of the lungs, the 
 existence of capillary vessels, added the crowning proof to 
 Harvey's teachings," indeed, Malpighi had observed in a 
 frog the actual circulation of the blood.^ Moreover, within 
 a few years of the pjiblication of Harvey's book, anatomists 
 (Pequet 165 1) discovered the existence of the lymphatic 
 system, a death-blow to the Galenic notion that the liver 
 was the place of assimilation of food and blood. Long 
 before 1700 the nature of the process of breathing and 
 its parallelism with burning was understood, and thus 
 another prop of Galen's physiology was overthrown. 
 Besides, the microscope had revealed the structure of 
 the viscera, liver, kidney and spleen, the structure of 
 muscle, bone and the existence of blood corpuscles 
 (Leuwenhoek and Swammerdam). Brain and nerves 
 
 'Foster, Sir M., Lectures on the History of Physiology in the Six- 
 teenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, pp. 12 sq. 
 
 'Foster, Sir M., op. cit., p. 95. 
 
 'Published by Malpighi under the caption "I see with my own eyes 
 a certain great thing." Ibid., p. 96. ' 
 
GENERAL SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE 23 
 
 were studied (Willis) and the sense organs, especially 
 the eye, were successfully investigated (Kepler, Des- 
 cartes). We see therefore that the seventeenth century 
 composed the fundamental chapters of modern physi- 
 ology. 
 
 But it tried to do more. Just as in astronomy during 
 the seventeenth century the hypothesis of spirits moving 
 planets had to give way to physical laws of gravitation, 
 so an important school of physicians, the iatrophysicists, 
 looked to physics to explain all life's processes. Borelli 
 and Steno, following Descartes, were the main representa- 
 tives of this school of thought. By them all movements 
 were explained by laws of mechanics : digestion as purely 
 physical action of the stomach; the exchange of blood 
 in the " capillaries " as simple capillary action ; breathing 
 merely as expansion of the bronchial tubes; nervous ac- 
 tion as a form of oscillation. In opposition to the iatro- 
 physicists, the iatrochemists, Van Helmont, and De la Boe, 
 following Paracelsus, explained all life as" a series of 
 chemical processes ; digestion, heart action, breathing, 
 as forms of fermentation. So by 1700 the field of medi- 
 cine, in spite of its great advances, was rich in contro- 
 versies, and B was in the midst of a turmoil of conflicting 
 opinions. 
 
 In Mineralogy A would be in possession of books 
 which remained standard works throughout the seven- 
 teenth century.' B would know a great deal more in 
 the field of crystallography, owing to investigations of 
 physicists and chemists. For Nicholas Steno and Gulie- 
 limini had observed the markings and construction of 
 crystals and the constancy of their angles,' Robert 
 
 ' Agricola, George, De Re MetalUca, Libri, xii. 
 'Kobell, F., Geschichte der Mineralogie, p. 16. 
 
24 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Boyle, the crystallization of bismuth,' and Bartholinus 
 the double refraction in Icelandic spar (1670)/ 
 
 In the progress of Geology and Palaeontology, the 
 seventeenth century is of some importance. A in 1600 
 could not conceive of sciences which ex vi terfnini were 
 in conflict with the Bible. But he would know of fossils 
 found in rocks, marvellously like animals, and this re- 
 semblance would challenge some explanation. The 
 natural assumption that they were of animal origin was 
 inconceivable; for the church taught that land and sea 
 had been separated on the third day of creation, two 
 days before the appearance of animal life; so rocks could 
 not be crowded with the remains of animals. The ex- 
 planation offered was that these fossils were " freaks of 
 nature " {lusus naturae) having no more connection 
 with living creatures than frost patterns on a window 
 with flowers ; or they were styled " figured stones " — 
 lapides sui generis ; created by some inorganic imitative 
 process within the earth, spiritus lapidificus^ — " denn 
 wo die Begriffe fehlen " — or at times the explanation of 
 volcanic origin was given to attest the existence of fossils 
 in non-volcanic rocks. 
 
 B's information, however deficient, would be somewhat 
 better. By 1700 the peculiar phenomenon presented by 
 fossils and the question of their geological nature had 
 received some attention. The organic origin of fossil 
 forms had to be conceded, and most varied explanations 
 were proffered. Lhwyd (1699) would have them grow 
 from seeds planted from rocks;* Hooke (1688) called 
 fossils " manuscripts of nature," and traced their origin 
 
 'Kobell, F., op. cit., p. 12. 'Ibid., p. 7. 
 
 'Zittel, K. A., Geschichte der Palaeontologie, p. 17. 
 *Carus, J. v., op. cit., p. 467. 
 
GENERAL SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE 25 
 
 to earthquakes ; ' Woodward, who gave all his time to 
 these studies, in his Essay towards a Natural History 
 of the Earth (1695), asserted views which defied any rec- 
 onciliation with the Bible ; " finally there was Scheuchzer 
 (1699) who tried to explain the difficulty by the fact that 
 during the Deluge, animal remains had been deposited — 
 and this theory was sanctioned by the church.^ 
 
 General geological speculation existed in some rare 
 instances. In 1696 a book was published and even reached 
 six editions, which explained the origin of the earth as a 
 comet.* Three views showing astonishing insight were 
 evolved during the seventeenth century: Steno (1669) 
 in De Solido intra Solidum asserted that the earth's 
 crust consisted of parallel layers, and that fossils were 
 remnants of organic matter ;= Leibnitz (1693) published 
 a book, Protogeae, wherein he described the gradual 
 origin of the spherical shape of the earth, of its waters, 
 its atmosphere, its metals and minerals. Here, more- 
 over, he explained along evolutionary lines, the organic 
 origin of fossils — and at the end asserted that this was 
 not in opposition to the Bible.* Then there was the 
 above-mentioned essay of Woodward, which contained 
 many views accepted to-day. But in spite of these iso- 
 lated instances, a general darkness in matters geological 
 undoubtedly prevailed in B's thoughts. 
 
 If in this resume of scientific achievements of the 
 seventeenth century, we include mathematics, it is not 
 from the point of view of mathematics as an independent 
 discipline. For this stands closer to pure philosophy 
 than to experimental science. Only so far as it belongs 
 
 •Carus, J. v., op. cit., p. 23. 'Ibid., p. 39. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 24. *Ibid., p. 40. 'Ibid., p. 36. 
 
 « Fischer, K., Gottfried W. Leibnitz, p. 188. 
 
26 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 in the category of instruments of scientific research will 
 it be noticed here and we would ask in what way it 
 differed, when wielded by A from the tool in the hand ^ 
 of B. 
 
 By 1600 new computation in the fundamental processes 
 of arithmetic had been reduced to fairly manageable 
 form ; calculation with fractions had become simplified, 
 and even the decimal point had been introduced. As re- 
 gards geometry A had not passed fundamentally ^eyond 
 the wide knowledge of the Greeks, typified by Euclid's 
 elements and Apollonius's conic sections. He understood 
 the trigonometric functions, and had for his astronomical 
 calculations trigonometric tables carefully computed — a 
 valuable legacy of the sixteenth century.' In algebra he 
 had all the fundamental notions, though not as yet ex- 
 pressed in modern terminology. 
 
 B's knowledge comprised only an elaboration and sim- 
 plification of facts previously known. In the field of 
 arithmetic, the seventeenth century, characteristically, 
 first ventured upon the invention of calculating machines.'' 
 It originated the study of convergent series, thence 
 evolved logarithms (Napier, Briggs), and thereby pro- 
 duced a revolution in the field of computation.^ B 
 would know of new practical applications of arithmetic 
 for statistical purposes, such as mortality tables (Sir 
 Petty, Halley);'' of the theory of probability (Pascal, 
 Fermat);5 and would have his algebra in modern form 
 (Descartes). He would be acquainted with Descartes' 
 method of expressing geometric conceptions by algebraic 
 equations, referring points to a fixed system of coordinate 
 
 'Funk, Dr. Karl, A Brief History of Mathematics, p. 39 sq. 
 'Ibid., p. 48. 'Ibid., pp. 288, sqq. 
 
 'Ibid., p. 57. '•Ibid., p. 148. 
 
GENERAL SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE 
 
 27 /-' 
 
 axes. This invention proved an invaluable help to exact 
 thought and expression, a photographic method, so to 
 speak, of picturing interrelations of magnitudes such as 
 frequently occur in physics, chemistry, and indeed in every 
 realm of the physical world. B would be initiated in 
 the study of the higher plane curves (Descartes, Leibnitz, 
 Bernouilli, Newton); he would be aware of the many 
 properties of cycloid curves (Galileo, Roberval, Huygens, 
 Bernouilli), a curve of the greatest importance in the 
 history of science, as through its properties Huygens 
 discovered his isochronous pendulum.' But the re- 
 searches which were destined to make mathematics 
 henceforth the most powerful tool in science dealt with 
 the use of the infinitesimals. At first this was studied 
 for the sole purpose of calculating volumes and areas 
 (Kepler, Cavalieri, Roberval, Huygens, Wren, Wallis, 
 Barrow); later, in the hands of Newton and Leibnitz, it 
 became the differential and integral calculus." Thereby 
 mathematics was fashioned into the supreme instrument 
 of research in theoretical physics and astronomy. In 
 this form, it bears to their study the same relative in>: 
 portance as the telescope to astronomy, and the micro- 
 scope to zoology, even more perfect in the absolute 
 exactness of its responses to the scientist's questions. 
 This instrument of scientific research was destined prac- 
 tically to monopolize the efJorts of scientists of the 
 eighteenth century, and, allied with methods of direct 
 experimentation, held and is still holding sway in the 
 study of the inorganic sciences. ^^ 
 
 To sum up: It has been pointed out that Rosen- \j 
 berger's phrase: "Introducing experiment into science" 
 implies, when taken subjectively, creating in men a high 
 
 •Funk, op. cit., pp. 228-240 passim. ^ Ibid., pp. 168 sqq. 
 
28 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Standard of exact observation and developing in them 
 experimental skill. I have attempted to show that the 
 seventeenth century did create and develop this, not by 
 pointing to a long line of scientists who lived then, but 
 rather by comparing the information of two imaginary 
 characters assumed to be acquainted with the entire 
 range of the science of their day. The comparison has 
 made clear that great progress — though in varying de- 
 grees — was made in the different sciences. The greatest 
 progress was evinced in physics, astronomy, medicine, 
 and mathematics, in which indeed the fundamental facits 
 upon which these sciences have been further developed 
 were established; considerable progress was shown in 
 botany, zoology and chemistry; least in geology and 
 paleontology. All this scientific advance, with the ex- 
 ception of that in mathematics, was won by experimenta- 
 tion and observation. Every new truth was explained 
 ' on the basis of demonstrable facts before it came to be 
 incorporated in the body of scientific knowledge. In- 
 deed, this vast progress in science represents; as even 
 thfs superficial survey has shown, the summation of the 
 individual efiforts of many men, and proves conclusively 
 the "subjective" side of Rosenberger's contention, that(, 
 the seventeenth century developed in men ability and high', 
 standards of observation, and experimental skill. 
 
 Thus the seventeenth century stands out as the cen- , 
 tury that introduced experiment and thereby dynamic 
 changes into science. This was in striking contrast with 
 other phases of mental activity of the time. There was 
 little evidence of a general clearing-away of old super- 
 stitions. Belief in witchcraft was almost universal, and 
 I in the last decade professors at the most enlightened 
 I university of Germany — Halle, met to discuss the ques- 
 tion of witch trials, and Christian Thomasius, one of the 
 
GENERAL SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE 29 
 
 leaders of thought joined the debate, fully convinced of 
 their necessity.' The belief in the efficacy of the " touch " 
 held sway in to the eighteenth century, Louis XIV 
 touched 1600 persons, Charles II even more." Boyle, 
 the experimenter, traveled to Ireland to be " touched " 
 by Valentine Greatrix.^ Just as firmly rooted was th^ 
 belief in sympathetic and magnetic cures and powders.' 
 The literal acceptance of the "Christian epic" was 
 adhered to by the greatest scientists, Boyle and Newton, 
 and a great deal of the mental energy of the century was'\ 
 consumed in explaining on the one hand the identity of j 
 Christian tradition and the new truths obtained through j 
 experimentation ; and on the other hand in asserting P 
 the "innocence" of these studies and showing that they I 
 did not interfere with the orthodoxy of religious creed. J 
 By a strange "division of labor" it remained for a non- 
 scientific set of thinkers, the Deists, to let the scientists' 
 discoveries react upon the Christian epic, and to com- 
 mence the subversion of the Bible as the court of final 
 appeal in scientific matters. 
 
 ' White, Anirevrl Seven Great Statesmen, p. 138. 
 
 'Weld, Charles R., A History of the Royal Society, vol. i, p. 89. 
 
 'Ibid., p. 90. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 Role of Individual Scientists 
 
 We have heretofore spoken of the seventeenth century^ 
 as a unit; but a dividing line may be drawn at about 
 the middle of the century, and a closer analysis willi 
 reveal that the forces at work during the latter half of / 
 the century were different from those which produced! 
 the scientific achievements of the first half. ' 
 
 / This first half seems more like a "mutation" than a 
 normal, gradual evolution from previous times. It ac- 
 complished through the work of a few men a revolution 
 in the established habits of thought and inquiry, com- 
 pared to which most revolutions registered in history 
 seem insignificant. It created the experimental method, 
 
 -^it invented and used with startling results the telescope 
 and microscope ; it exhibited the vanity and insufificiency 
 of a great part of the traditional knowledge. The 
 
 /second half of the century elaborated these results. 
 Much of this elaboration was accomplished by science- 
 loving amateurs, who often in enthusiastic co-operation, 
 coordinated their efforts, devoted themselves to experi- 
 mentation, and to the creation and improvement of instru- 
 ments, who indeed — to use Rosenberger's phrase again — 
 " reduced science to a worship and idolization of experi- 
 ment as an end in itself." ' 
 
 A complete analysis of all the forces, which created 
 the change from 1600-1650, would be too far-reaching. 
 
 ' Rosenberger, op. cit., ii, p. 135. 
 30 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 31 
 
 We should have to give an account of the reasons why 
 preceding centuries were in the main satisfied to hand 
 down uncritically the scientific heritage of the Greeks, 
 unchanged but for the augmentations and elucidations of 
 the Arabian thinkers ; and further still, we should have 
 to explain why the Greeks left their heritage in a 
 form which did not have " the seminal living principle " 
 within itself. No such complete analysis will be under- 
 taken here ; but merely in cursory fashion the attempt 
 will be made to review the work of the two types of 
 men who contributed to this change : (a) the scientists. 
 who did the pioneer work of showing the insufficiency of 
 the facts handed down from the past, who established 
 experiment definitely as the chief means of successful sci- 
 entific progress ; who invented the telescope and micro- 
 scope, and used them to prove positively that the store 
 of inherited knowledge was capable of indefinite exten- 
 sion, and (b) \^\& philosophers, the propagandists of this 
 movement, who revealed the illusiveness of the methods 
 of study hitherto followed, and who preached as a new 
 gospel those very modes of inquiry which the scientists 
 had adopted. 
 
 First in time among the scientists who were to usher 
 in a new era was Dr. William Gilbert' (1540-1603), 
 the learned physician of Queen Elizabeth. His work 
 De magnete magneticisque corporibus et de magna magA 
 nete tellure Physiologica nova (London, 1600) was the 
 first book that contained nothing of peripatetic natural 
 philosophy, did not despise observation in deference to 
 authority, but which was based entirely upon experi- 
 ment, and showed great skill in the use of the experi- 
 mental method in the investigation of new phenomena. 
 
 'Dannemann, F., Die Naturwissenschaften in ihrer Entwicklung und 
 in ihrem Zusammenhange (1911), vol. ii, pp. 85-92. 
 
32 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Gilbert's observations of the magnetic needle led him to 
 the conclufeion that the earth was a vast magnet. In 
 order to prove this, he constructed a large spherical 
 magnet, which he called Terella (little earth) , suspended 
 a magnetic needle near it, and found the closest analogy 
 of its action to that of a magnetic needle near the earth 
 — indeed, he determined poles, meridians and the equator 
 upon the " Terella." By this experiment he proved his 
 conjecture, employing the typical methods of a Scientist : 
 first, hjrgothesis, then co nstructio n ofj|pparatus to prove 
 the hypothesis, and then proof_by ^periment. From his 
 work on magnetism, Gilbert passed to the observation of 
 what are called to-day electric phenomena. Up to Gil- 
 bert's time it was known that amber attracted light 
 bodies. He first sought to determine whether other 
 bodies exhibited similar powers of attraction, and found 
 a long series of objects showing the same phenomena. 
 Considering this attraction an independent force in 
 nature, he called it " electricity," and thus became the 
 father of this branch of physics. Furthermore he specu- 
 lated in an interesting way on the dififerences between 
 magnetisrn and electricity. .*■ 
 
 In his other work, De mundo nostra sublunari Philo- 
 sophia Magna, Gilbert showed himself in direct opposi- 
 tion to the philosophy of Aristotle. He rejected the 
 notion of "levity" or positive lightness, accepted the 
 Copernican system, and " seeing everything under mag- ' 
 netic aspect," as Francis Bacon asserts, he postulated a 
 magnetic force interacting between the stellar bodies. 
 
 ,, In spite of Dr. William Gilbert's brilliant hypotheses 
 'land experiments, the entire accomplishments of these ^ 
 '•decades seem concentrated in Galileo.' He belongs 
 ' For good account, see Dannemann, op. cit. (1911), vol. ii, pp. 15-70. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 33 
 
 among that small group of men such as Petrarch, 
 Erasmus and Voltaire, whcJse lives stand for a transitional 
 epoch in the history of men's mind, who at once bear 
 the marks of an age they help to supplant, and in 
 their thoughts create and anticipate the development 
 of succeeding ages, (jalile o's popular fame is b ased on 
 his work in astronomy and his suffering for the 
 Copernitan doctrine. But his reputation as the first^ 
 modern scientist is based on his contribution to the over- 
 throw of Aristotelian physics, his introduction of new 
 methods of investigation, and his development and use 
 of those instruments which did the most to " advertise " 
 the cause of science. Nurtured in the principles of 
 Aristotelian mechanics, which had been accepted for 1900 
 years, he was led, by observation, to doubt them. Hav- 
 ing dared to doubt, he soon disproved them in a fashion 
 typical of the man who stood at the juncture of two 
 opposing schools of thought : he dispro ved.. J-hem— by 
 scholastic reasoning and.,„by..e3cperiflient- Let us follow 
 him in two characteristic instances of his famous poineer 
 work in mechanics. 
 
 Galileo was of course taught that heavy bodies fall 
 faster than light ones, but he saw all the candelabra in 
 the dome of Pisa, heavy and light, swing in equal 
 periods, and as he conceived of this swinging of the , 
 pendulum as a form of falling (the inferen ce of a gen ius j 
 he saw plainly that Aristotle's idea of the relation of 
 weight of body and time of fall was at variance with ob- 
 servable facts, and thus came to enunciate the law that 
 all bodies fall with equal velocity. Then his mind, in 
 medieval fashion, evolved two speculative scholastic proofs 
 for his surmise and the refutation of Aristotle's principles.' 
 
 ' Galilei, Galileo, Discorsi e dimostrasioni matematichi intomo a due 
 nuove scienze. One of the interlocutors says to the other : Conceive of a 
 
34 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 With these speculations the medieval mind would 
 have stopped. But because Galileo sought experimental 
 proofs for his truths, he differed from his contempor- 
 aries. He made t wo hun dred-jrials, dropping heavy and 
 light weights from the tower of Pisa, and, where resist- 
 ance of air did not cause differences, he found they 
 reached the ground simultaneously. Later, in Padua, 
 he studied experimentally pendula of dififerent weights, 
 and found them vibrating in the same periods. Then, 
 and only then, was he convinced that Aristotle's law of 
 free fall was erroneous, and that his own assumption that 
 all bodies fall in equal time was proved.. 
 
 Turning to another experiment of Galileo : Aristotel- 
 ian physics had recognized the acceleration of motion of 
 ialling bodies. Galileo sought for a mathematical 
 •formula of this acceleration. He started with the arbi- 
 trary medieval assumption that this acceleration wot^d 
 be most "regular" and "normal" if it were uniforfo.' 
 But Galileo recognized that this was a pure surmise, and 
 that its correctness depended upon his success in its ex- 
 perimental demonstration. Here difficulties arose at 
 once. "Velocities-" could not be measured. With 
 
 falling mass, disintegrated into a number of small particles. All these 
 particles, being of equal size, will reach the earth simultaneously; yet 
 conceived as a unit they are the heavy mass, and this demonstrates that 
 the entire mass falls at the same rate as its component light particles, 
 hence the time of fall is independent of weight. Again, suppose a 
 heavy and a light body dropped simultaneously. The time occupied by 
 their fall must be, according to Aristotle, a mean between the shorter 
 time occupied by the fall of the heavy and the longer time by the fall of 
 the lighter body. But as their combined weight is greater than that of 
 either, the time occupied in the fa.ll of both ought to be less than that 
 used in the fall of the heavy body. The incompatibility of these results 
 showed Aristotle's conclusions to be wrong. 
 
 '/. e. , if the velocity in each successive second would receive equal 
 increments and so be proportional to time. 
 
ROLE OP INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 35 
 
 masterly analysis he deducted from the assumed law 
 v: v' = t : t' ; the other that s : s' = t : t'°,' which pro- 
 portion had the advantage that its terms were measur- 
 able quantities. But still the time occupied in falling 
 was under normal circumstances too short to be meas- 
 ured with accuracy by instruments at Galileo's disposal ; 
 therefore, by a feat of scientific imagination he overcame 
 this seemingly insurmountable difficulty. By a process 
 of reasoning, which cannot stand to-day's scrutiny, 
 though the conclusions are correct, Galileo concluded 
 that a ball rolling along an inclined plane was subject to 
 the same laws as a body falling from the height of the 
 inclined plane ; only, that by making the hypotenuse of 
 such an inclined plane, say, twelve times longer than the 
 height, the duration of time occupied by the "fall" was 
 increased twelve-fold. With such an inclined plane he 
 proceeded to study the laws of free fall. These experi- 
 ments and the apparatus employed are of particular in- 
 terest in the history of science.^ A sphere of brass, 
 highly polished, rolled along the inclined plane in a ridge 
 bordered with parchment, on which there was a scale. 
 To measure the time occupied in the "fall" Galileo at- 
 tached a very small spout to the bottom of a water pail ; 
 the water escaping through the spout, during the time 
 when the body traveled through a given distance, was 
 collected in a cup, and its weight served as the measure 
 of time. With this apparatus Galileo found that his 
 hypothesis — that the velocity in successive seconds re- 
 ceived equal increments — was correct. The fundamental 
 laws of free fall, of bodies acted on by a constant force, 
 of uniform acceleration, etc., were established. 
 
 ' Where s stands for distance and t for time. 
 
 'For models of the instruments, see Deutsches Museum (Munich), 
 Room 18 D. 
 
36 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 /\ have singled out these two instances to show Galileo 
 1 1 not only as a theorizer in dynamics, but as "the ex- 
 Jperimenter," and the ori ginator Xif _the entire scientific 
 (methodic Inhistories of the microscope' and, telescope/ 
 conjectures can be found as to which particular grinder 
 of lenses in Holland first conceived of these instruments. 
 But it is generally admitted that it was Galileo's micro- 
 scope which was first used by Stelluti of the Academia 
 dei Lincei for systematic research; 3 and it was Galileo's 
 telescope which was first directed to the heavens, 
 y'lt was almost an accident that led Galileo to the dis- 
 \covery of the telescope."* With this instrument, which 
 magnified at first three, then eight, and finally thirty- 
 three diameters, he made the first telescopic astronom- 
 ical observations. These he published in the Sidereus 
 Nuntius, one of the most famous short pamphlets in the 
 history of experimental science. The enthusiastic author 
 reveled in the novelty of what he has found, in the won- 
 der of his new " organum " (instrument), and in the 
 verification of the Copernican theory. In his dedication 
 to Cosimo II he says : 
 
 I shall in this small tract bring great news to those who are 
 in the habit of contemplating nature. Things great not only 
 on account of their beauty, but also on account of the instru- 
 ment through which they presented themselves. 
 
 He told of his new observations of mountains on the 
 moon, of the four moons of Jupiter, " the Medicean 
 
 ' Petri, Das Mikroskop. 
 
 ' Servus, Geschichte des Fernrokrs. ' See below. 
 
 'While in Venice he heard a report of the invention of a telescope, 
 and surmising its construction by his experimental genius he promised 
 the authorities to fashion one. He succeeded, and received from the 
 appreciative senate a life pension. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 37 
 
 Planets" and their varying phases. He exulted in the 
 proof thus supplied of the Copernican system ("because 
 they revolve abmit Jupiter just as Venus and Mercury 
 revolve about tnte sun"). In addition, the old argu- 
 ment that all stellar bodies must revolve about the earth 
 because the moon did, lost its force, inasmuch as the 
 " Medicean " planets revolved about Jupiter. The little 
 book Sidereus Nuntius did more than bring new light 
 upon astronomical matters and support the Copernican 
 doctrine; its effect went far beyond the province of 
 astronomy. It tended to dissociate in the minds of its 
 many readers the experimental study of nature from the 
 prejudices popularly held against anything that seemed 
 connected with the dark methods of alchemists; it 
 demonstrated that this new method of inquiry, this scru- 
 tinizing of nature by new contrivances, might reveal to 
 man deep truths hitherto unsuspected. 
 
 Galileo made a tour of Italy with the telescope, to show 
 his new discoveries. Cosimo II appointed him Court 
 Mathematician, and gave him the professorship of mathe- 
 matics at Pisa without the obligation to teach. There 
 Galileo continued his astronomical work, observed the 
 phases of Venus (final proof of the Copernican system) 
 and sun spots. This latter discovery proved unfortunate, 
 because it engaged him in a priority contest with the 
 Jesuit Scheiner, and excited the hostility of the order 
 against him. At the same time the Dominicans began 
 to attack the Copernican system, in the seventieth year 
 of its existence. Galileo as its defender found himself 
 more and more involved. In a letter to the mother of 
 the Duke of Tuscany, which has become famous, Galileo 
 refutes most eloquently the charge that the Copernican 
 doctrine is heretical: 
 
38 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 We bring new discoveries not to confuse the minds, but to en- 
 lighten them, not to destroy science, but to put it on a sound 
 foundation. Our opponents call that false and heretical 
 which they cannot refute, and use their feigned religious zeal 
 as a shield and the Bible as a servant of their private designs. 
 He who would cling to the literal interpretation of the Bible 
 would find contradictions in such expressions as the eyes, 
 hand, or wrath of God." But all this is adapted to the con- 
 ception of the people. . . . The Bible speaks as the people of 
 the time looked upon matters. ... In science man must begin 
 not with the authority of the Bible, but with observation and 
 
 proof The Bible cannot be at variance with facts 
 
 because God cannot contradict Himself. It were risking the 
 authority of the Bible, if when once the facts are proved, the 
 Bible were not interpreted to fit these facts, rather than that 
 man should go counter to the facts and proofs of nature.' 
 
 / In 1616 Galileo^ went to Rome to justify his teach- 
 ings. But in spite of a friendly interview with Pope 
 I Paul V. the Congregation of the Index first condemned 
 / the Copernican system, February 25, and later on March 5, 
 ^-Galileo's teachings.^ Galileo returned to Florence and 
 lived there, engaged in his researches until he wrote his 
 ^ Dialogo sopra i due masstmi sistemi del mondo Toletn- 
 aico e Copernicano (1622), the work which, through its 
 condemnation by the inquisition, ended his career as an 
 stronomer. It was written in Italian, and contained a 
 debate between the old and new science, between the 
 physicist armed with the text of Aristotle and the ex- 
 perimenter armed with the telescope. 
 
 ' Dannemann, Dr. F., op cit., ii p. 22, gives the German translation 
 of the letter quoted from Carriere, Die philosophische Weltanschauung 
 der Retormationszeit. 
 
 ' Strauss, Emil, Dialogue uber die beiden Hauptsachlichen Weltsys- 
 teme das Ptolomaische und Kopernikanische von Galileo Galilei. (A 
 German translation of the Dialogo) pp. xxxv, iqq. 
 
 ' This is, however, debated. 
 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 39 
 
 The three characters' of this famous dialogue are 
 masterfully drawn. Salviati " at one time a merchant and 
 senator of Florence, a pupil of Galileo — a learned man, 
 member of the Academia dei Lincei, stands for the pro- 
 gressive scientist and voices Galileo's convictions ; Nicolo 
 Sagredo^ a man much interested in science and mathe- 
 matics, though in an amateurish way, represents the 
 educated layman, favorably disposed to progress. The 
 third character is Simplicio, the representative of con- 
 servative, authoritative book-knowledge, a figure sug- 
 gesting Wagner in Goethe's Faust. He tries to under- 
 stand his opponents and wants to learn of the new 
 teachings, not in the least afraid that he may be con- 
 verted, certain that he will be only the more fortified in 
 his views and the better able to refute and strangle these 
 new-fangled and dangerous doctrines. 
 
 As we open the book, we see the frontispiece charac- 
 teristically representing three men in argument, Aristotle, 
 Ptolemy and Copernicus. In glancing at the first pages 
 of the dialogue, the timidity and insincerity evidently de- 
 manded by existing circumstances are at once keenly 
 felt. In the dedication the author emphasizes the fact 
 that Copernicus's view has been condemned, but that 
 nevertheless he wishes to show the reader that in Italy 
 and Rome as much is known about Copernicus as any- 
 where. Salviati, a most unreserved defender of Coperni- 
 cus's views, says he is of course only playing the Coperni- 
 caii, using as it were that mask in the comedy. As the dia- 
 logue proceeds, it does not take the form of an exposi- 
 tion and defence of the Copernican theory, but is a 
 refutation of arguments brought by Aristotelians, ama- 
 
 ' Strauss, op cit., pp. xlix, sqq. 
 
 ' Salviati died in 1614. ' Sagredo died in 1620. 
 
40 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 teurs and scientists, against Copernicus. Incidentally it 
 purposes to popularize the scientific point of view and 
 give the reader a notion of the true method of " modern " 
 science. It strikes at the heart of the schoolmen's 
 deference for Aristotle.' The Aristotelian idea of the 
 fundamental difference of heavenly and earthly mechanics 
 is shown to be worthless. He points out that there is no 
 difference between celestial and terrestrial bodies; that 
 all move in circles, that all are equally changeable, as 
 sun-spots and variable stars show; that the heavenly 
 bodies are not " perfect " spheres, as may be seen by 
 the existence of mountains on the moon. 
 
 The purely physical and astronomical arguments for 
 and against the Copernican system are then reviewed. 
 The Medicean stars whose periods are forty-two hours, 
 three and a half days, seven days, sixteen days, according 
 to their nearness to Jupiter, are given as illustrations of 
 
 ' As for instance when Simplicio asks : " If Aristotle is not the guide, 
 who then should be? Name the authority," Salviati replies : "We 
 need a guide in unknown countries ; in known places only the blind 
 need direction ; and the blind would better stay at home. He who has 
 eyes, better take them as glides." (Strauss, op. cit., p. 117.) Again 
 Salviati says: "It is disgraceful at a public disputation, where things 
 which can be proved are being dealt with, to have someone bring up a 
 quotation of Aristotle. Bring us, Simplicio, your own or Aristotle's 
 proofs; for we are dealing with the world of senses and not of paper." 
 (Ibid., p. 118). In another passage Salviati says: " If the subject of 
 our discussion were a question of jurisprudence or human affairs, elo- 
 quence would be in place. In science, where conclusions are true and 
 necessary, where nothing is arbitrary, words will not help. Wise men 
 can't spite nature. Sun-spots are facts." (Ibid., p. 57.) Salviati 
 urged that no one who followed the process of dissecting a body would 
 hesitate to admit that the nerves ran to the brain, if this idea were 
 not rejected by Aristotle. One of Aristotle's admirers had gone so far 
 as to claim that it was the learned Greek himself who invented the tele- 
 scope. " People injure Aristotle," Salviati urged, " by too much belief; 
 he would have adopted the modern point of view had he had a telescope." 
 (Ibid., pp. 113 sqq.) 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 
 
 41 
 
 the motions of other members of our solar system, the 
 nearest planets having the shortest periods of rotation.' 
 Interspersed with physics and mechanics, we find a keen 
 psychological analysis of the forces which seemed to 
 Galileo responsible for mental stagnation. He bemoans 
 man's impudence in taking his conceptions as the measure 
 of all things. Salviato compares Simplicio, who would 
 know the purpose of a system like the Copernican before 
 accepting it, to the berry that thinks the sun is created 
 only to ripen it.^ He points out that the fact that the 
 Copernican theory is opposed to our primitive sense 
 perceptions, our intuitive surmises, should not condemn 
 it. Man is far too ready to accept preconceived notions, 
 and shape his premises to fit his conclusions.^ 
 
 There is nice psychological analysis in a comparison 
 drawn between the adherents and opponents of the Co- 
 pernican theory. The Copernican's belief is the result of 
 argument and study : " He who gives up received opin- 
 ions in which he was nurtured, for those accepted by but 
 few persons, rejected in the universities, seemingly 
 paradoxical, must be influenced — nay, forced, by good 
 reasons, while their opponents need not have studied the 
 matter at all." Simplicio confesses that he has not as 
 
 ' Much space is given to the following argument, conceived as the 
 strongest point against the rotation of the earth. It was claimed that 
 if a body were thrown from the mast of a moving ship, it would not fall 
 at the foot of the mast, but some feet away, owing to the motion of the 
 ship. Hence, it was argued, that a ball dropped from the Tower of Pisa 
 would, if the earth rotated, not strike at the foot, but far away. Salviat* 
 proves that this assertion about the ship is a pure assumption ; that, in 
 as much as the object dropped partakes of the motion of the ship, the 
 fall would be (and is) as if the ship were at rest. Similarly the earth 
 can rotate and yet the stone fall at the foot of the tower. (Strauss, op. 
 cit., p. 14s) . Incidentally he adds: ' ' We have as little conception of what 
 makes a stone fall as what keeps the moon in its course. ' ' {Ibid. , p. 249) . 
 
 » Strauss, op. cit., p. 384. 'Ibid., p. 279. 
 
42 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 yet read many of the new books ; he hasn't tested the 
 telescope, but in the face of the opinion of men who 
 have tested it a hundred times, he asserts he hasn't much 
 confidence in it, and that many things seen through it 
 may be but illusions created by the lenses." 
 
 No part of the Dialogo is more interesting than that 
 which deals with Gilbert's discovery. Galileo seemed 
 conscious that in him he had a Mitstreiter not only 
 in the Copernican controversy, but in support of the 
 entire modern scientific attitude. The magnet's three- 
 fold motion is, to Galileo, proof positive that the earth 
 can have such a threefold motion — for the objection of 
 the Aristotelians that the earth is simple and the magnet 
 compound, seems to Galileo as if one said bread was 
 simple, but one of its ingredients is compound.'' 
 
 That the Dialogo was written as a means of propa- 
 ganda for the new science seems evident from the fact 
 that it was written in Italian. It was this fact in great 
 part that raised a storm of protest which no other 
 scientific work except Darvvin's " Origin of Species " has 
 ever raised. The Egpe, told that he was caricatured in the 
 figure of Simplicio, was merciless, and the ensuing trial 
 and condemnation forms the most thrilling chapter in 
 the "Warfare of Science and Theology." The con- 
 demnation had far-reaching results. It could not stop 
 scientific inquiry, but by committing the clergy and the 
 Catholic universities to the side opposed to experimental 
 science, it clearly defined the issue in the "warfare" 
 / between scientific truth on the one hand, and Church 
 i and Bible on the other, — the last scenes of which we 
 \ are still witnessing. Further, it implied that science 
 must seek its support outside of the university, a point 
 
 'Strauss, o^. «V., p. 369. '/Wrf., pp. 430 sqq. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 43 
 
 of great importance for the future both of science and 
 of the universities. 
 
 As with most figures in periods of transition of 
 thought, Galileo was strangely conservative on a few 
 points. For instance, he accepted in Aristotelian fash- 
 ion the resistema del vacuo, a modified horror vacui, 
 as an explanation of why a pump could raise water 
 only thirty-two feet.' In the Discorsi et Demostrazioni 
 Matematiche GaHleo says that, as in the case of a sus- 
 pended coil of wire there is a length at which its own 
 weight breaks it, so it must be with the column of water 
 raised by the pump.'' Inasmuch as Galileo knew that air 
 had weight, and had devised a means of weighing it, all 
 this is the more strange,' and in a measure enhances the 
 historical interest of the man. 
 
 It was appropriate that Galileo's pupil and successor 
 as Court Mathematician of the Medici, Torricelli, (1608- 
 1647) should discover the principles underlying the hor- 
 ror vacui and in this discovery may be seen a triumph of 
 the experimental method. Torricelli,* finding the water 
 column too high to manipulate, decided to determine 
 the height to which he could raise mercury, and noticed 
 it to be 28 inches (a column having of course the 
 same weight as 32 feet of water). This in itself seemed 
 to indicate nothing but that the same degree of horror 
 vacui acted upon mercury as upon the water in the 
 
 ' The story goes that when a Florentine gardener informed him that 
 he could raise water, by means of a pump, only to a fixed height, and 
 not beyond it, Galileo, at first amazed, declared that the ' ' horror vacui " 
 had apparently this definite limitation. 
 
 ^Discorsi in OstwaiA' s Klassiker der exacten Wissenschaften, No. 11, 
 p. 17. 
 
 'Dannemann, op. cit., p. 39 
 
 *Ilnd., 159-161. 
 
44 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 pump. But the fact that this careful observer noted 
 that the height of his column varied on dififerent days, 
 gave a clue to its connection with the atmosphere, for 
 "nature" as he put it "would not, as a flirtatious girl, 
 have a dififerent horror vacui dififerent days." Strangely, 
 he did not interest himself so much in the question of 
 the vacuum itself, as in that of the varying height of the 
 column of mercury, and in the construction of the baro- 
 meter. Pascal (1623-1662),' on hearing of Torricelli's 
 experiments, as final proof of the connection between 
 the phenomenon and atmospheric pressure, undertook 
 to determine whether the height of a column of mercury 
 would be dififerent on top of a mountain than at its foot. 
 The interesting letter in which he urged his brother-in- 
 law, Perier, to make the experiment on the Mount Puy 
 de Dome (970 m.) has come down to us with Perier's 
 answer, giving a detailed description of how he meas- 
 ured the mercury column in the valley, and how he 
 repeated the measurement on top of the mountain — 
 finding, to his surprise, a very great difiference. Torri- 
 celli, however, making similar experiments at the duomo 
 of Florence, claimed priority in this train of thought.' 
 In addition, Torricelli and Pascal discovered the laws of 
 Hydrostatics, and both must be counted among the 
 great experimenters of the time. 
 
 Kepler" (i 571-1630), who stands next to Gilbert and 
 Galileo as a pioneer in physical science, differs from 
 them, when his work is considered as a whole, in being 
 rather a mathematical than an experimental physicist. 
 But in his work in optics and with the telescope, he be- 
 longs with them ; and as the telescope is the instrument 
 
 'Pascal, Blaise, " Recit de la grand experience. de I'equilibre des 
 liqueurs" fParis, 1648). 
 
 'Dannemann, op. cit., pp. 114-133. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 45 
 
 which "advertised" the new science most, he must ever 
 be ranked among the pioneers that marshaled the forces 
 of the new science. The discovery of the laws which 
 bear his name links him inseparably to those branches of 
 mathematics by which in the eighteenth century physics 
 was destined to conquer the skies. His work Dioptrice, 
 ( 161 1 ) , though its conclusions were based only upon most 
 primitive methods of experimentation, was the basis of the 
 
 great optical experiments of the seventeenth century. w 
 
 Turning to the pioneers of experimentation in 
 organic science i. e., Medicine, during the years 1600- 
 1650, the name of Harvey stands out as Galileo's does 
 in physics. But there is one important point of differ- 
 ence ; Galileo, as we have seen, was the first to perceive 
 that Aristotle's mechanics were wrong, and to substitute 
 new laws. In medical science a line of predecessors of 
 Harvey had done the pioneer work of refuting Galen's 
 omniscience. Vesalius' (1515-1564) had first insisted 
 on methods of dissection, and had at first timidly, then 
 more and more boldly, proclaimed that what he saw at 
 the dissecting table did not always tally with Galen's 
 teaching, and that Galen was wrong. He incorporated 
 his results in a book "Structure of the Human Body"' 
 (1542) and thereby became the founder of the non- 
 Galenic science of anatomy. Vesalius' work was con- 
 tinued by his pupils, Falloppio (i 523-1 562) and Realdus 
 Columbus (1516-1559). Cesalpinus (1519-1603), a 
 pupil of Falloppio, understood the pulmonary circula- 
 tion of the blood, and Fabricius (1537-1619), the suc- 
 cessor of Falloppio as professor of anatomy in Padua, 
 wrote a book with correct views on the valves of the 
 heart.3 Harvey (i 578-1657), Fabricius's pupil, welded 
 
 ' For a full account of Vesalius, see Foster, op. cit., pp. 1-24. 
 ' Fabrica Humani Corporis. 
 'Foster, op. cit., pp. 25-41. 
 
46 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 together the several links which these men had fur- 
 nished and was indeed — according to Foster — not the 
 first to discover, but to demonstrate, the circulation of 
 the blood. His immortal work, Exercitatio anatomica 
 de motu cordis et sanguinis is one of the most interest- 
 ing books of this period to the historical student, not 
 only on account of the intrinsic importance of the dis- 
 covery it contains, but because it frankly tells of the 
 train of thought which led to the discovery and admits 
 the reader, as it were, to the mental workshop of the 
 author. Harvey was conscious of the difficulties of his 
 problem, and of the fact that only experimental methods 
 would help to solve it. He wrote as follows : 
 
 When I first gave my mind to vivisection as a means of dis- 
 covering the motions and uses of the heart, and sought to 
 discover these from actual inspection, and not from the writ- 
 ings of others, I found the task so truly arduous, so full of 
 difficulties, that I was almost tempted to think . . . that the 
 motion of the heart was only to be comprehended by God. 
 ... At length, and by using greater and daily diligence and 
 investigation . . . making frequent inspections of many and 
 various animals, and collating numerous observations, I 
 thought that I had attained the truth . . . and that I had dis- 
 covered . . . both the motion and use of the heart and arteries.' 
 
 He first investigated the true nature and purpose of the 
 movements of the heart itself and found " that the motion 
 of the heart consists in a certain universal tension, both 
 contraction in the line of its fibres and constriction in 
 every sense . . ." and that " the heart when it contracts 
 is emptied. Whence the motion which is generally re- 
 
 ' Harvey, William, " On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Ani- 
 mals" (Willis' translation, revised by Alex. Bowie), Chap. I, p. 20. 
 
ROLE OP INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 47 
 
 garded as the diastole of the heart is in truth its systole.'" 
 The pressure of the constriction squeezes the blood into 
 the arteries and it is this transmitted pressure which 
 causes the pulse.'' 
 
 With this changed point of view, through observation 
 of man, experiments on hearts of fishes, frogs, birds and 
 embryos,^ Harvey was led to a correct conception of 
 the functions of the auricles, ventricles and their respec- 
 tive valves,'' dispensing definitely with Galen's " invisible 
 pores " in the septum of the heart. This in turn led him 
 to a true understanding of the pulmonary circulation of 
 the blood.5 Then applying to the greater circulation 
 the same conclusions as those at which he had arrived • 
 in regard to the pulmonary circulation, he arrived at a 
 view . . ." of a character so novel and unheard-of that I, 
 
 ' Harvey, William, op. cit., p. 23 sg. 
 
 'Ibid., p. 26. The arteries do not swell in order to suck in the blood 
 but because blood is driven into them by the systole of the heart. 
 " They are filled like sacs . . . and do not expand like bellows." 
 
 'Ibid., pp. 2Q sgq.. Chap. VI, p. 37. " Dissections of animals must 
 furnish the data necessary to solve the problem. ■ . . They plainly do 
 amiss who, pretending to speak of the parts of animals generally as 
 anatomists for the most part do, confine their researches to the human 
 body alone, and that when it is dead." 
 
 *Ibid., p. 32 " the auricle contracts, and forces the blood . . . 
 
 into the ventricle . . . which being filled, the heart raises itself straight- 
 way, makes all its fibres tense, contracts the ventricles, and performs 
 a beat by which beat is immediately sent the blood supplied to it by 
 the auricle into the arteries. The right ventricle sends its charge into 
 the lungs by the vessel which is called vena arteriosa, but which in 
 structure and function and all other respects, is an artery. The left 
 ventricle sends its charge into the aorta, and through this by the 
 arteries to the body at large." 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 42. "In the warmer adult animals, and man, the blood 
 passes from the right ventricle of the heart by the pulmonary artery, 
 into the lungs, and thence by the pulmonary veins into the left auricle, 
 and from there into the left ventricle of the heart." 
 
48 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 (Harvey) not only fear injury to myself from the envy 
 of a few, but I tremble lest I have mankind at large my 
 enemies.'" This novel view was of course the circula- 
 tion of the blood. It is very interesting to note that 
 Harvey was led to his views on the circulation of the 
 blood, not by speculative deductions, but by the con- 
 sideration of the quantitative features of blood. He 
 writes : 
 
 I frequently and seriously bethought me, . . . what might 
 be the quantity of blood which was transmitted, in how short 
 a time its passage might be efifected, and the like. . . But not 
 finding it possible ' that this could be supplied by the juices of 
 the ingested aliment without the veins on the one hand be- 
 coming drained, and the arteries on the other hand becoming 
 ruptured through the excessive charge of blood, unless the 
 blood should somehow find its way from the arteries into the 
 veins, and so return to the right side of the heart, I began to 
 think Tvhether there might not be a motion, as it were, in a 
 circle. Now this I afterwards found to be true and I finally 
 saw that the blood, forced by the action of the left ventricle 
 into the arteries was distributed to the body at large, and its 
 several parts, in the same manner as it is sent through the lungs, 
 impelled by the right ventricle into the pulmonary artery, and 
 
 'Harvey, William, op. cit., Chap. VII, p. 47. . . . " so much doth 
 wont and custom become a second nature. Doctrine once sown strikes 
 deep its root, and respect for antiquity iniluences all men. Still the die 
 is cast, and my trust is in my love of truth and the candor of cultivated 
 minds." 
 
 'Compare Harvey, op. cit., pp. 50. " Let us assume ... the quan- 
 tities of blood which the ventricle will contain . . . two ounces. And 
 one drachm of blood . . . propelled by the heart at each pulse into the 
 aorta. . . . In . . . half an hour, the heart will have made more that one 
 thousand beats. . . . Multiplying the number of drachms propelled by 
 the number of pulses, we shall have . . . one thousand drachms of 
 blood . . . sent from (the heart) into the artery ; a larger quantity . . . 
 than is contained in the whole body. . . . 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 49 
 
 that it then passed through the veins and along the vena cava 
 and so round to the left ventricle. . . .' 
 
 From this reasoning and numerous dissections of 
 animals and embryos," and observation of pathological 
 conditions, all corroborating his views, Harvey found it 
 
 absolutely necessary to conclude that the blood in the animal 
 body is impelled in a circle, and is in a state of ceaseless 
 motion ; that this is the act or function which the heart per- 
 forms by means of the pulse ; and that is the sole and only 
 end of the motion and contraction of the heart.' 
 
 At first Harvey's book, as he had foreseen, gave rise 
 to much opposition, and Aubrey tells us that he heard 
 Harvey say: "that after his book on the 'Circulation of 
 the Blood ' came out, he fell mightly in his practice : 'twas 
 believed by the vulgar that he was crack-brained and 
 all the physicians were against his opinion."* But in 
 the near future Harvey's analysis, supplemented by Aselli's 
 discovery of the lymphatics (1622), and Pecquet' s (1651) 
 of the thoracic duct,^ and by Malpighi's observation of 
 the capillaries* (1661), worked a revolution in the sci- 
 ence of physiology. Nay more, beyond the realm of 
 physiology it was of the greatest significance in remov- 
 ing the necessity of assuming the three types of spirits 
 in the human system,' and went far to eliminate the 
 
 ' Harvey, op. cit., p. 48. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 56 snake's heart; Ibid., p. 69. 
 
 ^Ibid., Chapt. XIV, p. 71. It should be clearly noticed that Harvey 
 traced the wave of blood from the contracting heart to the arteries and 
 followed back the flow of venous blood to the heart, but did not as yet 
 find the capillary system. 
 
 *Aubrey, John, "Brief Lives," chiefly of contemporaries, set down 
 by . . . between 1669-1696, edited by Clark Andrew, vol. i, p. 300. 
 
 5 Foster, op. cit., pp. 47-Si- ^Ibid., pp. 95 siQ- ' See above. 
 
50 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 supernatural as an explanation, substituting in its stead 
 natural law. It showed that accepted notions were 
 fundamentally wrong; that new scientific truths might 
 be attained through the patient, painstaking work of ex- 
 perimentation. 
 
 We have to add to the pioneers in the physical and 
 organic sciences in the first decades of the seventeenth 
 century one interesting chemist, the Belgian physician, 
 J. B. Van Helmont' (1577-1644), a man of the Para- 
 celsus type. He in part fits the age: a careful, exact 
 observer, one who in the spirit of the new physics 
 used measures and weights, and took advantage of the 
 aid of instruments of exact research, and reached his 
 conclusions by accurate quantitative estimates. But in 
 addition, he was a mystic, with such strong leaning to- 
 ward the supernatural that it is hard to think of him as 
 a contemporary of Harvey, Galileo, and Bacon. Dis- 
 agreeing with Paracelsus's three, and Aristotle's four ele- 
 ments, he recognized only two — air and water. For this 
 he gave the following very interesting proof, which 
 marks the experimenter : He took a pot and earth 
 weighing 200 lbs. and a sprout weighing 16 lbs., sprinkled 
 it only with water, whence there developed a tree weigh- 
 ing 169 lbs., pot and earth still weighing 200 lbs. Hence 
 he inferred the tree's growth came only from water, and 
 that the earth was not an element. Helmont was the first 
 to observe that all gases' were not identical, and distin- 
 guished, for example, carbonic acid from air and vapor. 
 He made extensive studies along lines of fermentation, 
 and these in turn led him along lines of novel physiolog- 
 ical speculations. Like Paracelsus, Van Helmont was 
 
 ' Foster, op. cit. (excellent account) , pp. 128-144. 
 'According to some authorities, the word "gas" was derived by 
 Helmont from " chaos." 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 
 
 SI 
 
 convinced of the chemical nature of all human processes 
 which he, unlike Paracelsus, resolved into six forms of 
 fermentation : these in turn (here the mystic speaks) 
 he assumed to be directed by a spirit. 
 
 This notion of life as a series of chemical processes was 
 the dominating idea of latro-chemists for a century to 
 come, and therefore Van Helmont, in spite of his vaga- 
 ries, must be reckoned among the great pioneers of the 
 early seventeenth century. 
 
 I spoke of two groups of reformers who produced 
 the scientific revolution of 1600-1650, the scientists and 
 philosophic propagandists. It is to the latter group 
 that I now turn : Sir Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes 
 — two men very dissimilar except in the fact that both 
 were in sympathy with the new movement, and both 
 thought of themselves as experimental scientists; both 
 influenced wide circles whom the direct message of the 
 pure scientist would not have reached ; both believed 
 they were originating methods of thought, which, as we 
 have seen, had already been put in practice with remark- 
 able results by active scientific investigators. 
 
 Bacon's significance is equally great as iconoclast and 
 as builder : but he will be considered here only in 
 the latter capacity, as the promoter of experimental 
 science. Indeed, he was one of the main forces that 
 brought about the " mutation " from 1600 to 1650. 
 One has but to read the Advancement of Learning and 
 the Novum Organum (Pt. I) to feel the impact of 
 Bacon's force.' For, as in the case^of Luther, it can 
 
 'To quote only one instance of Bacon's effect upon the seventeenth 
 century, Collins, after reading the Advancement of Learning, said he 
 found himself "in case to begin studies anew," and that he "lost all 
 time studying before." (MuUinger, J. B., The University of Cambridge, 
 vol. iii, p. 67.) 
 
52 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 only be felt at its source. " Other men said the same 
 in whispers, or in learned books written for a circle of 
 select readers. Bacon cried it from the housetops, and 
 invited all to partake. He cried aloud in a language so 
 marvellous, so appealing, so full of pictures, that every 
 sentence carried the full force of conviction. . ."' Bacon's 
 message is indeed well known. First of all he insisted 
 by example and precept, upon experiment and observa- 
 tion as the sole means of research, and brought them 
 into a prominence they never had before. The first 
 aphorism of the Novum Organum strikes the keynote 
 of this message, to be repeated in countless variations : 
 " Man . . . can do and understand so much, only as he 
 observes in fact or in thought of the course of nature ; 
 beyond this he neither knows anything, nor can do any- 
 thing."' . . "Of such observation there will be hardly 
 any . . . proficience . . . except there be some allowance 
 for . . . experiment." 5 "For nature like a witness, 
 reveals her secrets when put to torture."'' Indeed 
 (deficience in) " inventions . . of art and sciences . . (is) 
 . . as if in making an inventory . . it should be set down 
 that there is no ready money. For . . . this knowledge 
 . . . should purchase all the rest."^ 
 ^I^ et ns note hpre t hat-Bacen-ever-empha^izes that the 
 ultitiiate--pui:.poseof all scientific Jkjiowledge is not the 
 fact per se, but its utilitarian character. " It is not 
 possible to run a course aright when the goal itself is 
 not rightly placed. The true and lawful goal of the 
 
 'Fowler, Thomas, Bacon's Novum Organum, p. 126: "Ego enim 
 buccinator tantum " (De Augm. Scient. IV). 
 'Bacon, Francis, Novum Organum, Aph. I. 
 ' Bacon's of the Advancement of Learning, p. jy. 
 •Quoted by Fowler, op. cit., p. 127. 
 'Bacon'^ of the Advancement of Learning, p. 112. 
 
ROLE OP INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 53 
 
 sciences is none other than this : that human life be 
 endowed with new discoveries and powers. . . ." ' But 
 ~if Bacon, in his phrase, "rang the bell to call the wits 
 together" it was for a more specific message, and this 
 indeed he considered his immortal contribution to 
 science. He wanted on every possible topic' a collec- 
 tion of all conceivable facts to be made — histories or 
 " calendars, resembling an inventory of the estate of 
 man, containing all inventions which are now extant and 
 whereof man is now possessed." ^ But this collection 
 was noi to be in the nature of an enumeration, "for in- 
 duction which proceeds simply by enumeration is child- 
 ish,"'' but according to a fixed and definite method of 
 procedure, viz., the "BaconiOji Instances." These 
 seemed to Bacon as indispensable in the work of the 
 scientist, as the telescope in the study of Astronomy : 
 " Neither the naked hand nor the understanding left to 
 itself can effect much. It is by instruments and helps 
 that the work is done, which are as much wanted for 
 the understanding as for the hand. . . ." ^ Such instru- 
 
 ^ Novum Organum, Aph. LXXXI. This, according to Fowler (pp. 
 cit., p. 130) was a beneficial influence. "When we recollect the frivo- 
 lous character of many of the questions which men of most brilliant 
 ability were then in the habit of disputing and the profound misery and 
 discomfort in which the mass of mankind was sunk, we can hardly feel 
 surprise that he (Bacon) advised the application of man's intellectual 
 endowments to the improvement of material conditions." 
 
 ' At the end of Parasceve he suggests 130 topics. 
 
 ' Of the Advancement of Learning, . . . "out of which doth naturally 
 result a note what things are yet held impossible or not invented ; 
 which Calendar will be the more . . . serviceable if to every reputed 
 impossibility, you add what thing is extant which coraeth the nearest 
 in degree to that impossibility," p. gg. 
 
 ^ Novum Organum, Aph. CV. 
 
 ^ Novum Organum, Aph. II. 
 
54 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 >> I 
 
 ments of the understanding were the " Instances 
 The following aphorism clearly shows how different this 
 method is to be from the mere collection of facts : 
 
 Those who have handled sciences have been either men of 
 experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are 
 like ants ; they only collect and use ; the reasoners resemble 
 spiders who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But 
 the bee takes a middle course : it g^athers its material from the 
 flowers of the garden. . . but transforms and digests it by a 
 ' power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of 
 philosophy ; for it neither relies solely ... on the powers of 
 the mind, nor does it take the matter which it gathers from 
 natural history and mechanical experiments and lay it up 
 in the memory whole as it finds it ; but lays it up in the 
 understanding altered and digested. Therefore from a closer 
 and purer league between these two faculties, the experimental 
 and rational (such as has never yet been made) much may be 
 hoped." 
 
 And such a " league " his " instances " were to supply.^ 
 It is clearly brought out in a most interesting dialogue 
 in Spedding's "Preface to Parasceve" * that this very 
 thing which Bacon considered the most important part 
 of his work has ultimately not been accepted. But for 
 the purposes of this investigation it is most important 
 to note that even if it did not prove eventually the right 
 method, the seventeenth century accepted it absolutely; 
 the compilation of " histories " was henceforth the ideal 
 
 'The text of the Novum Organum, e. g.. New Method, Pt. II. 
 * Novum Organum, Aph. XCV. 
 
 ' Bacon in his Sylva Sylvarum and History of Winds makes collec- 
 tions according to his " Instances." 
 
 •Spedding's Preface to Parasceve (a most enlightening account), pp. 
 383-403, in Robertson, John M.'s, edition ol Bacon's Works. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 55 
 
 of the .Study of nature.' This deeply afifected succeeding 
 decades, for this compiling of " histories " was that par- 
 ticular portion of Bacon's message to his century which 
 to us is of greatest importance. Histories as he con- 
 ceived them could be compiled only dy united effort. 
 
 Nor was posterity left to surmise in what manner and 
 by what type of organization Bacon advocated such an 
 accumulation of facts. It was to be through the instru- 
 mentality of learned societies. As Glanvill says : " The 
 great man . . . formed a society of experimenters of a 
 ' Romantick Model,' but could do no more. His time 
 was not ripe for such performance." ' This " Romantick 
 Model " is Salomon's House, a Utopian learned society,^ 
 in the ideal commonwealth Bensalem as described in 
 New Atlantis. The " riches " of the house of Salomon 
 consisted in a series of laboratories devoted to all con- 
 ceivable subjects of experimental research, with facilities 
 of Utopian perfection — laboratories beneath the ground, 
 observatories on high towers upon mountain peaks ; all 
 apparatus for physiological experiments ; botanical and 
 zoological experiment stations in the fullest sense of the 
 word ; places for dissection, chemico-pharmacological 
 and physical laboratories; special laboratories for the 
 study of heat, of optics, of sound, of engineering prob- 
 lems, all sketched in a completeness which the twentieth 
 century has not reached, but along lines toward which 
 scientific progress has been advancing. All this is put in 
 
 'To quote a few instances: Anthony Wood called his work on col- 
 lected rarities " Britannica Baconica " (Fowler, o/. cit., p. 3). The 
 titles of Boyle's works were ever "Histories." Leibnitz advocated 
 compiling " calendars " of all facts. (Whether the Baconian instances 
 were used I cannot say.) 
 
 'Glanvill, Jos., Plus Ultra, or the Progress and Advancement of 
 Knowledge since the Days of Aristotle. 
 
 'This description is reprinted in full in the Appendix. 
 
56 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 charge of a hierarchy of scientists, the Merchants of 
 Light, who are to bring news from foreign lands, the 
 Depredators who ransack books for scientific facts, the 
 Mystery Men who collect experiments in the mechanical 
 arts, the Pioneers who try new experiments, the Com- 
 pilers who tabulate the results, the Dowery men who try 
 to derive practical benefit, the Lamps who direct new ex- 
 periments, the Inoculators who try these, the Interpret- 
 ers of nature who " raise . . . discoveries into greater 
 observations, axioms, aphorisms." 
 
 Such is, briefly. Bacon's famous description of the 
 " House of Salomon." It is as it were Bacon's last will 
 and testament to his century. It bears to the cause of 
 learned societies the same relation as Marx' " Communist 
 Manifesto " to socialist propaganda. No account is ever 
 given of gatherings of learned men without reference to 
 this "romantick" prototype of societies. To the his- 
 torical student, to whom the learned societies seem a 
 feature of great importance, there is therefore no person- 
 ality, except Galileo, so indispensable in a consideration 
 of the progress of science from 1600 to 1650 as Bacon, 
 for he is the veritable apostle of the learned societies. 
 
 It is much more difficult — but no less essential — to 
 grasp the significance of Descartes fqr the cause of 
 experimental science. In several points the French 
 philosopher agrees with Bacon's ideas. To mention first 
 a purely external point, they were both endowed with the 
 extraordinary gift of style, the art of telling their tale 
 in wonderful phrase; while Bacon excels perhaps in 
 brilliancy, there is a note of winning personal appeal, of 
 frankness, of simplicity, in Descartes' writings that estab- 
 lishes closer intimacy between him and his reader. To 
 come to more essential points, Descartes approved wholly 
 
RdLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS ^ 57 
 
 and absolutely of Bacon's program of experimentation : 
 " I cannot add anything to Lord Verulanus," he wrote to 
 Mersenne. In the " Discours de la Mkthode," Descartes 
 says 
 
 (My work on physics) " caused me to see that it is possible to 
 attain knowledge which is very useful in life ; and that instead 
 of that speculative philosophy which is taught in the schools, 
 we may find a practical philosophy by means of which know- 
 ing the force and action of fire, water, air, stars, the heavens 
 and all other bodies that environ us, as distinctly as we know 
 the different crafts of our artisans, we can in the same way 
 employ them in all those uses to which they are adapted, and 
 thus render ourselves masters and possessors of nature. This 
 is to be desired not merely with a view to the invention of an 
 infinity of arts and crafts, which enable us to enjoy without 
 any trouble the fruits of the earth and all good things — but 
 because it brings preservation of health. ... As to medicine 
 ... all that man knows is almost nothing in comparison with 
 what remains to be known ... I (decided) to beg all well 
 inclined persons to proceed further by contributing ... to 
 experiments and communicating them to the public ... in 
 order that the last should commence where the preceding had 
 left ofif, and thus by joining together the lives and labors of 
 many, we should collectively proceed much further than any 
 one in particular could succeed in doing." ' 
 
 This was surely a Baconian program. Again Descartes 
 says : " About experiments, I remarked they become 
 more necessary the more one is advanced in knowl- 
 edge."" He requests that everybody cut open for him- 
 self the heart of a large animal to understand the circu- 
 lation of blood.3 
 
 As to learned societies, which are for us such an im- 
 
 ' Descartes, The Discourse of Method, Pt. VI, p. 116. 
 '/Wflf., p. 120. ^Ibid., p. no. 
 
58 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 portant part of Bacon's program, Descartes and his fol- 
 lowers sympathized with them. Descartes himself was 
 not a member, as no such societies existed in Holland ; 
 but he agreed with Queen Christiana's scheme of found- 
 ing an academy of science, and had drawn up its code 
 and statutes just before his death (February ii, 1650).' 
 Descartes agreed with Bacon in his fundamental dis- 
 approval of existing conditions and ideals of learning; 
 indeed, his criticism was even more scathing. Like 
 Bacon, Descartes hated all knowledge which was erudi- 
 tion rather than intelligence. " When one is too curious 
 about things which were practiced in past centuries, one 
 is ignorant about those practiced in our time." " " There 
 is no more sense in studying Latin and Greek than Old 
 Breton or Swiss German," he said; and to Queen 
 Christiana, when he heard she was studying Greek, he 
 pointed to a skeleton and said: "There is my book." 
 He characteristically wrote his MHhode in the vernac- 
 ular. 
 
 If I write in French, which is the language of my country, 
 rather than in Latin, .... it is because I hope those who 
 avail themselves only of their natural reason in its purity may 
 be better judges of my opinion than those who believe only 
 in writings of the ancients ; and as to those who unite good 
 sense with study, whom alone I crave for judges, they will 
 not, I feel sure, be so partial to Latin as to refuse to follow 
 my reasoning because I expound it in the vulgar tongue.' 
 
 Much more fully than Bacon, he realized the delusion 
 and fraudulent character of "the promises of an alchem- 
 ist, the predictions of an astrologer, and the impostures 
 
 ^Encyclopedia Britannica, nth edition, Descartes. 
 'Descartes, 7%« Discourse on Method, p. 84. 
 'Ibid., pp. 129 sq. 
 
ROLE OP INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 59 
 
 of a magician." ' He was the foe of conservative rever- 
 ence for any opinion because it had been adopted, for 
 "no opinion is too absurd not to have some uphold it."'' 
 In his travels he saw men entertaining opinions dififering 
 from his, and apparently persuaded by just as good 
 reasons — " I concluded it is more custom and example 
 that persuade us than any certain knowledge. . . . The 
 voice of the majority does not afford a proof .... as 
 truths are more likely to have been discovered by one 
 man than by a nation." ^ 
 
 Bacon and Descartes agreed in insisting that nothing 
 was to be admitted as true except what was proved ; 
 but at this point they widely disagreed. While to Bacon 
 the sole and only proof was the fact perceptible through 
 sense organs, to Descartes a proof just as real could be 
 derived from human thought and reason. And from 
 this essential point of difference they arrived at widely 
 different conclusions. 
 
 It would seem at first thought that Bacon's attitude 
 would be the only one appropriate to the scientists. 
 Yet it must not be forgotten that to Bacon and his fol- 
 lowers, in spite of all protestation, there was an island 
 of thought that could not be perceived through sense 
 organs and which had to be accepted by faith ; the island 
 where true divinity dwelt. But to Descartes religious 
 speculations ceased to be something apart from other 
 thought. He broke the barrier, coming it is true, to 
 perfectly orthodox conclusions ; but it is the breaking of 
 the barrier which is the important consideration for us at 
 this point. So while Descartes' basis of truth led him 
 ultimately to build up a "Weltanschauung" little suited 
 
 ' Descartes, The Discourse on Method, p. 86. 
 'Ibid. p. 90. ^Ibid. p. 91. 
 
6o THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 to an age of experiment, it led others, perhaps uncon- 
 sciously to a rational attitude on religious matters. 
 
 Descartes' greatest achievement in pure philosophy 
 was his construction, as it were, of the Euclid of 
 Reason.' His famous four laws prescribing the mode of 
 all reasoning have been accepted by posterity. The con- 
 ception of the infinite he declared could not have arisen 
 within his finite self, except as it caused itself ; hence, he 
 believed, there was a God. Thence Descartes deduced 
 the certainty of human knowledge. God cannot have 
 created man for deception, but all that which man con- 
 ceives with his pure reason as true, is true. What we 
 comprehend clearly and definitely therefore must be true 
 and real. 
 
 Let us turn from Descartes the philosopher to Descartes 
 the scientist. He was first and foremost a mathema- 
 tician, creative and original as perhaps no other man has 
 ever been. This science gave the determining bend to 
 most of his other work. In physics he made funda- 
 mental discoveries in the science of optics. Speculations 
 in the field of mechanics occupied his mind to such 
 an extent that in the laws of mechanics he came to see 
 the key to an explanation of the entire universe. This 
 is not the place ^ to give an explanation of Descartes' 
 vortex theory, by which he explained not only all cosmic, 
 but all terrestrial phenomena, Hght, heat, gravitation, 
 lightning, etc. It is well-nigh incredible that a man of 
 mathematical mind, an experimenter, should hand down 
 to posterity — in dangerously plausible terms — a system 
 which so far lacks all mathematical and physical exact- 
 
 ' Schopenhauer, very sparing of praise, says: " He first induced man 
 to use his own head, for whom hitherto the Bible or Aristotle performed 
 that function." 
 
 'Rosenberger, op. cit. (excellent account,) pp. 104-111. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 6l 
 
 ness that not one exact magnitude, not one hint at mass, 
 velocity or space, is to be found. The system was soon 
 accepted among cultured amateurs, and much later by 
 the universities. People felt that at one stroke all secrets 
 of the " cosmos " were dispelled. The pleasing and easy 
 demonstrations, mainly by " whirls of water, which pull 
 along everything which comes within their reach," were 
 much more attractive than the difficult laws of Kepler. 
 
 It was with the idea of applying mechanical principles 
 to the problems of life tliat Descartes interested himself 
 in physiology. Of his work in this field Foster says : 
 ".Descartes was neither an anatomist nor a physiologist, 
 he studied both as an amateur having a special purpose, 
 to construct out of the current knowledge a physical 
 basis for his philosophical views." ' His aim was to show 
 that man's structure was similar to that of a machine. 
 For this purpose he wrote the treatise " V Homme" 
 which is famous as the first text- book of physiology 
 written in a modern fashion. In a popular way the pro- 
 cesses of ingestion of food, digestion, circulation, were 
 explained, with the aim of making it clear that just as 
 the universe, man and all living things were subject to 
 exact laws of mathematics and physics. In this line of 
 thought he was followed by Steno and Borelli, and 
 became the founder of the latro-physical school of medi- 
 cine. 
 
 Before leaving Descartes the scientist, we must note 
 one quality which to-day would be incompatible with a 
 scientific type of mind, his timidity in expressing his 
 scientific conviction. This timidity long prevented him 
 from publishing his " Systlme du Monde" and when he 
 
 'Foster, Sir M., Lectures on the History of Physiology in the Seven- 
 teenth and Eighteenth Centuries, p. 58. 
 
62 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 finally did, his cosmic vortex theory was not given to 
 the world as his theory, but in the following guise : ' 
 
 Undoubtedly the world was in the beginning- created in all its 
 perfection. But as it is best, if we wish to understand the 
 nature of plants or of men, to consider how they may by de- 
 grees proceed from seeds rather than how they were created 
 by God in the beginning of the world, so, if we can excogi- 
 tate some extremely simple and comprehensive principles, 
 out of which as if they were seeds we can prove that stars and 
 earth and all its visible scene could have originated — although 
 we know full well that they never did originate in this way 
 — we shall expound their nature far better than if we merely 
 described them as they exist. 
 
 This timidity — if it can ever be condoned — must be for- 
 given in the devout Catholic, writing on cosmic matters 
 in the year of Galileo's condemnation. It is but a defi- 
 nite evidence of the baneful efifect of the attitude of the 
 Catholic church towards science. 
 
 Descartes' cosmic vortex theory and his application of 
 the laws of mechanics to physiology have a significance 
 independent of their truth. The vortex theory was an 
 attempt to deduce all cosmic phenomena from two pos- 
 tulates (extent and motion) with the same cogency as 
 mathematical conclusions are deduced from their hypo- 
 theses. It eliminates any need of assuming innate qual- 
 ities {qualitates occultae) in matter." It gave, even if 
 only in a hypothetical form, a mechanistic evolutionary 
 theory of cosmogenesis ; and thus in setting, even if not 
 in substance, was as far removed from the account in 
 Genesis as our views to-day. Similarly in physiology 
 
 'Descartes, op. cit., p. 109. 
 
 ' Such as the circular motion of heavenly, the rectilinear motion of 
 earthly, bodies. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 63 
 
 the conception of man as a machine changed the em- 
 phasis from soul to body. It put laws of physics and 
 mathematics in place of the mysterious "archaispirits" 
 of Paracelsus and Van Helmont. And most important, 
 both taken together, as indeed Descartes viewed them, 
 bridge over the chasm separating the organic and inor- 
 ganic world, and are the earliest attempt at an Einheit- 
 liche Weltanschauung. 
 
 Descartes stands supreme among those men in the 
 seventeenth century who promoted the mathematical 
 development of the study of science, which came into 
 full bloom in the eighteenth century ; but in spite of 
 his own successful work, his bias was against experi- 
 ment in science. Truths arrived at through deductive? 
 reasoning always remained to him of prime importance. 
 It is most characteristic that in a letter to Mersenne he 
 criticized Galileo for examining experimentally the laws 
 of free fall, without first ascertaining what gravitation 
 is, — whether free fall can exist. 
 
 Yet even if Descartes furthered but little the cause of 
 experiment directly, he is an indispensable factor in the 
 evolution of science. He brought divinity within the 
 pale of common thought, he widened the compass of 
 natural — in contradistinction to supernatural — laws be- 
 yond anything that man had attempted before him. 
 First and foremost he spread scientific inquiry in France 
 and in all Europe through the popular setting of his 
 works. The German phrase, " Er hat Schule gemacht," 
 can hardly be applied with greater propriety to any 
 man. Cartesianism came to be a veritable religion. 
 Even though this included much that experimental 
 science objected to, and finally opposed, it aided the 
 work of the experimenter by methodic doubt, independ- 
 ence of tradition, free thinking and mechanics as an ex- 
 
64 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 planation of natural phenomena. So the Cartesian was 
 an ally in the battle for establishing true knowledge. 
 
 After this sketch, however incomplete (for great men 
 such as Gassendi have been omitted), it will become 
 evident why the period of 1600-1650 was called a muta- 
 tion, rather than a normal gradual evolution. In these 
 decades, almost simultaneously in the most widely di- 
 vergent realms of thought, the yoke of tradition was 
 shaken off; there came about a "naissance" (if I may 
 coin the word) of independence from classical inherited 
 thought, a bursting-forth of hidden powers, a change of 
 mental condition from the potential into the kinetic 
 state. As regards science, in 1600 we are in the Middle 
 TAges, in 165a in Modern Times. 
 
 Turning to the second half of the seventeenth century, 
 we encounter the personality of a man who in every 
 sense is a continuator of Galileo's and Torricelli's work, 
 Guericke, the Mayor of Magdeburg (1602-1686).' His 
 invention of the air pump furnished an instrument whose 
 wonders were put next to those of the telescope and 
 microscope. It is of great historic interest that he, like 
 ' many others, was led to experimentation by the contem- 
 plation of astronomical matters. He was not a Coperni- 
 can ; to form an independent conception of the universe, 
 he proposed to create experimentally such a medium as 
 the stars move in — "for skill in disputation is of no avail 
 in the realm of science."' The experiments ^ he devised 
 
 'Dannemann, op. cit., pp. 166 sqq. 
 
 ■' Guericke, Otto de, Experimenta nova {at vocantur) Magdeburgica 
 de Vacuo Spatio. Preface. (Ostwald's Klassiker der exakten Wissen- 
 schaften, vol. 59.) 
 
 'Guericke, Otto de, op. cit., Pt. III. "I filled a cask with water, 
 made it everywhere air-tight, connected it on the lower side with a metal 
 
ROLE OP INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 65 
 
 for this purpose, epoch-making in the annals of the 
 history of science, eventually led him to the construction 
 of the air pump. With this he made his famous experi- 
 ments, first published to the world by Caspar Schottus' 
 (1657). H^ showed to the astonished Diet of Ratis- 
 bonne (1654) that fourteen horses could not separate 
 two metal hemispheres within which a vacuum had been 
 created, but that upon opening a cock to let in air, they 
 fell apart. With the pump he drew a column of water 
 to the fourth story of his house, and noted the fluctua- 
 tions of the column of water and their correspondence to 
 change in atmospheric conditions,'' he noted that light 
 was propagated in the vacuum, and sound was not ; ' 
 that the life of animals and the flame of a candle could 
 not be sustained in a space without air.'' All these ex- 
 pump wherewith to draw out the water ; I reasoned that as I drew out 
 the water the part of the cask above the water would then be ' empty 
 space.' At the first experiment the cask flew to pieces; I then affixed 
 heavier screws, three men succeeded in pumping out the water, but then 
 a sizzling sound was heard, the air filled the space from which water was 
 drawn. Then I tried putting a smaller cask within the larger, so as to 
 avoid the air rushing into the 'empty space,' and> drawing thence the 
 water. Again the sound, now like the twittering of a bird, was heard 
 and lasted for three days, for the wood was porous and let the air 
 through. Therefore I tried a copper sphere instead ; first this burst with ' 
 a loud report. I attributed this to a probable defect in the spherical 
 shape. With the greatest care I had a perfect sphere constructed. Now 
 finally a vacuum was obtained; opening the cock attached to the sphere, 
 the air rushed in with great violence. ... In order to show my experi- 
 ments to the Elector of Brandenburg, I devised the following apparatus, 
 which was easily portable." Then follows a description of the first 
 air-pump. 
 
 ' Schottus, Kaspar, Ars Hydraulico-Pneumatica. Through this work 
 Boyle learned of Guericke's experiments. 
 
 '' Hence he called the instrument " semper vivum." 
 
 'Guericke, op. cit., ch. xv. 
 
 */forf., p. 45- 
 
66 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 periments caused a great sensation and tremendously in- 
 creased the interest in science. 
 
 Guericke's air pump, taken in conjunction with the 
 microscope and telescope and the discovery of the ex- 
 perimental method noted above, give the typical coloring 
 to the mental activity of the decades 1650-90. " It 
 was," says Rosenberger, "in physics the period of the 
 veritable worship of the experiment."' Hooke, in 1665, 
 wrote, "We have imperfect senses and imperfect mem- 
 ories, hence imperfect understanding, only the experi- 
 mental knowledge can rectify these defects."' It was 
 even maintained that the experimenter should confine 
 himself to his experiments and avoid the danger of dis- 
 cussing their results. "The great experimenter Boyle 
 thought so little of drawing conclusions from his ob- 
 servations that he left the discovery of the generalization 
 known as ' Boyle's Law ' to one of his helpers. Every- 
 where those subjects were chosen where experiment was 
 decisive ; the air pump was used and all possible trials 
 made with it; instruments for meteorological observa- 
 tion — barometers, thermometers, hygrometers, ane- 
 mometers in all shapes, were invented and perfected. 
 Every experimenter dealt with the expansion of bodies 
 through heat, with the problem of boiling and freezing, 
 natural and artificial cold, with color and the study of 
 the spectrum." 3 
 
 We may logically ask: how was this new kind of 
 knowledge spread, and who were the people who first 
 
 'Rosenberger, o/>. cit., vol. ii, p. 135. 
 
 'Hooke, Robert, Micrographia, or some "Physiological Description 
 of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses, with Observations." 
 Preface. 
 
 'Rosenberger, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 133 sq. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 67 
 
 interested themselves in it ? In part undoubtedly it was 
 communicated through books ; Sir Francis Bacon's 
 works, widely read in England and France, announced 
 loudly that new thoughts were in the air. But the main 
 means of propagation were the discoveries themselves, 
 so intensely novel and startling that as soon as they 
 reached the open-minded man, they would win him 
 forthwith to the cause of experimentation. Who has 
 not been delighted at looking through a telescope or a 
 microscope, or watching a physical or a chemical experi- 
 ment, even in our own age which accepts the wonders of 
 science as its legitimate heritage? How much more 
 marvelous must these things have seemed to a genera- 
 tion of men to whom they came unexpectedly. The re- 
 port of a new scientific discovery fills us with admiration 
 and awe, though we are trained to think of science as in 
 a condition of perennial change and continuous growth. 
 How much more amazement must it have caused to 
 minds reared in the idea of the finality and imperturb- 
 ability of their information. Hooke exclaimed, in com- 
 menting on the wonders of the microscope : " In every 
 little particle of matter we behold almost as great a 
 variety of creatures as we were able before to reckon in 
 the Universe." ' Similarly, Sprat : " We have a greater 
 number of dififerent kinds of things revealed to us than 
 were contained in the visible Universe before."' The 
 telescope seemed to have endless possibilities, which 
 even the twentieth century have only in part realized. As 
 Glanvill puts it : " What success and information we may 
 expect from the telescope is romantic and ridiculous to 
 say " . . . " Posterity may find whether the earth moves, 
 and whether the planets are inhabited." ^ 
 
 ' Hooke, ofi. cit. Preface. ' Sprat, op. cit., p. 381. 
 
 ' Glanvill, op. cit. 
 
68 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 We now come to the question, what class did these 
 new truths and instruments first draw within their spell. 
 It must be emphasized here that experimental science 
 naturally would make its appeal to a vastly larger group 
 of people than that technically called the "intellectual 
 class" of the seventeenth century. Scholasticism and 
 humanism from the nature of their teachings had created 
 almost a caste of the learned, and moulded the realm of 
 mental activities into an oligarchy or aristocracy ; experi- 
 mental science, on the other hand, stood from its earliest 
 stages for the popularization and hence the democratiza- 
 tion of knowledge. While previously the topics and 
 modes of contemplation had been removed from every- 
 day objects and the affairs of men, and confined to 
 regions of speculation barred to most minds, now the 
 subjects and methods of investigation became closely 
 connected with those of homely life. Moreover, the 
 facts of experimental science were of such a nature, that 
 they could be comprehended not only by a few highly 
 trained individuals, but by a large number of people of 
 clear mind and comparatively little education. Whereas 
 before, all intellectual activity had been inseparably con- 
 nected with a mastery of Latin and Greek, — an insur- 
 mountable barrier to those whose circumstances or 
 inclination prevented them from learning those lan- 
 guages in youth, — now the vernacular, at everyone's 
 command, was sufficient linguistic preparation to allow 
 any one to join in the study of sciences. Before, years of 
 preparation had been necessary to give one the hope, 
 not of adding to, but merely of comprehending the 
 thoughts of those who had gone before them. Now it 
 appeared that the possession of a " faithful hand and an 
 observing eye " ' put the possibility of sharing in dis- 
 
 'Hooke, o/. «7. Preface. 
 
ROLE OP INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 69 
 
 coveries and valuable work within the reach of vast 
 numbers. Thus experimental science entered the ranks 
 in competition with scholastic learning, and made its 
 strongest appeal not to the erudite university man, 
 wedded to accepted tenets and proud of his place in 
 the oligarchy of the learned, but to the umiinftigen, 
 non-professional layman, hitherto excluded from the 
 privileges of mental activity. Indeed, this appeal seems 
 at times to rise to the point of passion. Sprat says 
 (1667): "The love of this science is so strongly roused 
 in the century in which we live, that it seems there is 
 nothing more in vogue in Europe." This love of science 
 developing among non-university men created the type 
 of the science-loving amateur, so characteristic of the 
 latter half of the seventeenth century. 
 
 Amateurs in science — " amateurs" in the accepted sense 
 of the word denoting those that " practice their art not 
 as a livelihood, but for the love of it," — were to be found 
 in many places and among many classes of people in the 
 latter part of the seventeenth century, mainly of course 
 in circles which were sufficiently wealthy not to feel the 
 immediate urgency of gaining a livelihood, and had 
 therefore sufficient leisure to follow their inclinations. 
 As these conditions existed on the one hand in the 
 larger commercial centers in England and Holland, on 
 the other in the homes of the nobles and privileged 
 classes, it was in these places that such interest was most 
 conspicuous. An exhaustive study of the amateur sci- 
 entists of this age — however interesting — is from the 
 nature of the case impossible. I shall merely take up a 
 few individual instances to show how general the interest 
 was and to illustrate the various types of men who be- 
 came devotees of the new knowledge. 
 
 In Italy, Ferdinand and Leopold Medici found a 
 
70 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 pastime in experimenting, had a laboratory and a col- 
 lection of instruments, devised experiments and had their 
 own glass blower.' Count Frederigo Cesi," early in the 
 century, was a great lover of science. The Count 
 Marsiglio^ in Bologna was a great experimenter, who 
 gathered men of similar interests about him, and finally 
 bequeathed his home to the university for a laboratory. 
 
 In France the Duke of Orleans.-^ brother of Louis 
 XIV, had a well equipped chemical laboratory, loved 
 alchemy, as Saint Simon says, " not to find gold but to 
 amuse himself with curious experiments." He owned 
 a convex lens of great power, in the focus of which 
 metallic gold would melt and become volatilized ; he had 
 his own chemists who worked with him. He was be- 
 sides a great lover of botany,' and had the prominent 
 English botanist Morison come to supervise his gardens 
 at Blois. 
 
 France is the home of one of the most famous ama- 
 teurs of all times, Peiresc, the parliamentarian. He was 
 a friend of Galileo,* and in frequent correspondence with 
 learned contemporaries.' A constant observer of the 
 stars * he bought forty telescopes until he got one good 
 enough to follow the observations of Galileo's " Sidereus 
 
 'Tozzeti, Gio Targione, Accademia del Cimento, Atti e memorie ine- 
 dite dell Accademia del Cimento, vol. iii, p. g6. 
 
 ' Carutti, C. Dominico, Breve Storia della Accademia dei Lincei. 
 
 •Mazetti, Sarafino, Memorie Storiche Sopra I'Universita e I' Institute 
 delle Scienze di Bologna, pp. 64 sqq. 
 
 *Bertrand, J., I'Acadimie des Sciences, p. 342. 
 
 ^Philosophical Transactions (Abridged), vol. i, p. 341. 
 
 'Gassendus, Petrus, "The mirror of true nobility, being the Life of 
 Renowned Nicolaus and Claudius Fabricius, Lord of Pereisc, Senator of 
 Parliament at Aix." Englished by W. Rand. London, 1657, vol. i, 
 p. 43- 
 
 ''Ibid., vol. i, p. 36. *Ibid., vol. i, pp. 145-154-186. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 
 
 71 
 
 Nuntius," ' and was unhappy because he missed a transit 
 of Mercury." He was equally interested in the shape of 
 snow crystals,^ fossilized rocks,* in fishes and plants.' 
 His main business was assisting learned men* — so 
 he is depicted by his friend and biographer Gassendi. 
 He was so interested in physiological questions that he 
 had experiments made on a man to test Harvey's dis- 
 covery.' But France on the whole produced few ex- 
 perimenting amateurs. Interest there in science often 
 took the form of merely attentive watching of other ex- 
 perimenters' progress, as is seen in the case of Colbert 
 and of Denys de Sallo, the learned founder of the Journal 
 des Savants.^ 
 
 In England Charles II is said to have had a " chymist " 
 laboratory and an operator in his palace, and to have fre- 
 quently visited the laboratories of his friends and dis- 
 cussed scientific questions.' Prince Rupert was well known 
 as an amateur. His biographer relates that in 1656 he 
 found new sources of inexhaustible interest in forge and 
 laboratory.'" After a career as warrior and courtier, he 
 adopted the student's life, and made various inventions, 
 so for example, he discovered a form of gunpowder ten 
 times the ordinary strength, whereby to blow up rocks 
 in mines and under water, improved locks in firearms, 
 
 'Gassendus, Petrus, o^. cit., vol. i, p. 143. ^Ibid., v.o!. ii, p. 62. 
 
 'Ibid., vol. i, p. 210. *Ibid., vol. li, pp. 46-47. 
 
 ^Ibid., vol. i, p. 43. ^Ibid., vol. ii, p. 3. 
 
 'Haeser, Heinrich, Lehrbuch der Gesckichte der Medizin, vol. ii, p. 
 274. 
 
 'Hatin, Histoire de la Presse en France, vol. ii, p. 152. 
 
 •Sprat, Thos., History of the Royal Society of London for the Improv- 
 ing of Natural Knowledge (1667), p. 149. 
 
 '" Wharburton, Eliot, Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers, 
 vol. iii, pp. 431 sq. 
 
72 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 devised a compound of new chemical composition — 
 Prince's metal — and supposedly invented the Prince 
 Rupert glass drop.' 
 
 There are in England many instances of nobles 
 preferring the study of experimentation to public 
 life. Indeed, it was noted by other nations that the 
 English aristocracy was conspicuously interested in 
 science. As Sprat says : " It (science) has begun to 
 keep best company, refine its fashion and appearance and 
 become the employment of the rich and great, instead 
 of being the subject of men's scorn." = " English coun- 
 tryseats removed from the tumult of cities give the best 
 opportunity, and freedom of observation, both of stars 
 and living creatures." ^ First and foremost among 
 science-loving nobles was Lord Robert Boyle, who so 
 completely devoted his time to science that he could hardly 
 be called an amateur, were it not that his chemistry 
 never became a source of livelihood to him, and he 
 never became affiliated with a university. As Boyle is 
 both the highest type of amateur and the foremost figure 
 among English scientists of the time, it will be essential 
 to discuss him somewhat in detail. He is a typical seven- 
 teenth century personality with two distinct natures; 
 on the one hand he was one of the most skilled experi- 
 menters, a pioneer chemist and physicist, who devoted 
 his life end ample means to the acquisition of new 
 knowledge by experiment only, a foe to universal sys- 
 tems such as Descartes' ; * on the other hand, he was a 
 man who was held inconceivably firmly in the clutches 
 of theological speculation and biblical tradition. 
 
 ' Wharburton, Eliot, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 433. 
 'Sprat, op. cit., p. 403. 'Sprat, op. cit., p. 405. 
 
 * Birch, Thos., The Works oi R. Boyle, (1744) to which is prefixed 
 a Life of the Author, vol. i, p. liv. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 73 
 
 It seems fitting in the continuity of history that Boyle 
 should be born in the year of Bacon's death, and that 
 he spent in Florence the winter (1641) in which occurred 
 the death of Galileo, whose work in the line of experi- 
 ment he was to continue. Boyle upon coming into his 
 estate at Stallbridge,' provided himself with a chemical 
 laboratory.' It is noteworthy, however, that much of 
 his time was given to metaphysical and religious specu- 
 lation, especially to the problem of the reconciliation of 
 science and religion as will be seen from a glance at the 
 titles of some of his essays.^ 
 
 Boyle's conclusions are best expressed, perhaps, in the 
 following sentences from his famous Considerations 
 touching the usefulness of Experimental Natural Phil- 
 osophy. " Whatever God himself has been pleased to 
 think worthy of making, its fellow creature Man sljould 
 not think unworthy of knowing " ^ . . " If the omniscient 
 author of nature knew that the study of his works tends 
 to make men disbelieve his Being or Attributes, he 
 would not have given them so many invitations to study 
 
 ' Birch, Thos., op. cit., vol. i, p. xxx. 
 
 ^Ibid., p. xxxvi. We read of "that great earthen furnace whose 
 conveying hither has taken up so much of my care," also of his limbecks, 
 recipients and other glasses. 
 
 '"Excellency of Theology compared with Natural Philosophy (as 
 both are objects of Men's Study) discoursed of in a letter to a friend." 
 
 "The Christian Virtuoso showing that by being addicted to experi- 
 mental Philosophy a Man is rather assisted than indisposed to be a good 
 Christian." 
 
 '-'A Discourse of Things above Reason inquiring whether a philoso- 
 pher should admit there be any such." 
 
 "A Disquisition about final Causes of natural things wherein is in- 
 quired whether, and (if at all) with what cautions Naturalists should 
 admit them." 
 
 * Boyle, Robert, Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experi- \ 
 mental Natural Philosophy (1663), p. 18. 
 
74 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 and contemplate Nature. . . ."' Yet he evinced his 
 deep orthodox religiousness by having the Bible trans- 
 lated into Malay for £5000 ; by giving £2000 to missions 
 in America, and leaving £350 in his will to have eight 
 sermons delivered on the truth of Christianity.'' This 
 was as essentially characteristic of Boyle as his interest 
 in experimentation, and must be emphasized in consid- 
 ering the personality of this scientist. 
 
 From his laboratory at Stallbridge, Boyle transferred 
 his residence to Oxford (1654). His biographer Birch 
 relates that in order to prosecute his studies with 
 greater advantage, he chose a private house rather than 
 a college, because he had more room and convenience to 
 make experiments. ^ Provided with all the necessary 
 instruments, and with capable assistants, he experimented 
 incessantly along lines of physics and chemistry which 
 for centuries afterwards were conceived as distinct, but 
 have been recently united under the caption physical 
 chemistry. With the aid of his assistant Hooke, he 
 made that famous series of experiments with Guericke's 
 air-pump — published as New Experiments Physico- 
 Mechanicdl Touching the Spring of Air'' (1660), which 
 popularized Guericke's invention and made the instru- 
 ment more widely known, under the name of Boyle's 
 pump.5 
 
 ' Boyle, Robert, op. Ht., p. 58. 
 ' Poggendorff , op. cit., pp. 467 sg. 
 'Birch, Life of Boyle, p. liv. 
 
 The person with whom he lodged was Cross, the apothecary, a most 
 characteristic choice. 
 
 *It was in a controversy about these experiments that " Boyle's law" 
 was enunciated. 
 
 ' Rosenberger, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 155. 
 • Boyle's physical researches touched the elasticity of water, artificial 
 cold. He was the first to study the theory of colors, thus giving incen- 
 tive to Hooke's and Newton's researches. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 75 
 
 His chemical experiments are summarized in his book, 
 TAe Sceptical Chymist, or Chymico-Physical Doubts 
 and Paradoxes touching experiments whereby Vulgar 
 Spagyrists are wont to endeavor to evince their Salt, 
 Sulphur and Mercury to be true principles of things. 
 This is a conversation in which the " Sceptical Chymist" 
 (being Boyle) refutes three men defining Aristotle's idea 
 of the four elements, and Paracelsus's of three substances 
 composing all matter.' Here and in his numberless 
 other chemical works Boyle laid down those chemical 
 principles which made him the father of chemistry which 
 was now an independent science," and no longer the 
 adjunct of alchemy or of medicine. With a comprehen- 
 siveness of scientific interest typical of the seventeenth 
 century, Boyle studied anatomy and said of this study: 
 " I have seen in dissection more of variety and contrivance 
 of nature and majesty and wisdom of her author, than all 
 books I ever read in my life could give me convincing 
 notions of."^ 
 
 But the phase of Boyle's work which is the most in- 
 teresting to us, is his advocacy and exposition of right 
 methods of experimentation, shown, especially, in his 
 two essays, Concerning the unsuccessfulness of Experi- 
 ments, containing diverse admonitions and observations 
 {^chiefly chymicat) touching that subject in which he stated 
 the correct aim and direction of investigations ; and again 
 his constant insistence on the lack of knowledge of 
 essential matters among most men, as in his. Essay of 
 mens Great Ignorance of the Uses of Natural Things, 
 or there is scarce any one thing in Nature whereof 
 
 'Kopp, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 166. 
 
 '" Postquam chymiae operationes percurissem, coepi mecum ipsecogi- 
 tare quanto ad naturalem philosophiam promovendam usui esse possunt. 
 ..." Ibid., vol. ii, p. 164. 
 
 'Birch, Life of Boyle, p. xxxiii. 
 
76 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 the Uses to human Life are yet thoroughly understood. 
 Indeed it may truly be said that next to Bacon no other 
 individual Englishman did so much as Boyle to advance 
 the cause of experimentation. 
 
 Turning now from the professional amateur Boyle, to 
 other English lovers of science, we meet the personality 
 of the Marquis of Worcester, a wealthy amateur not of 
 pure, but of applied science.' In his Century of the 
 names and scantlings of such Inventions as at present I 
 can call to mind to have tried and perfected, he gave 
 evidences of at least one hundred (as the title says) dif- 
 ferent experiments he made, among which was the 
 famous one upon which rests his claim of being the 
 inventor of the first steam engine. That he was an 
 enthusiast on the subject of experimental work was 
 shown in his attempt to buy Fauxhall and have it set 
 apart as a resort for artists and mechanics, a depot for 
 models and scientific apparatus, and a place where 
 experiments and trials of profitable inventions could be 
 carried on.^ 
 
 There was also among the English nobles. Lord Bruce,^ 
 the wealthy Scotch mine owner, interested in experi- 
 ments, and Lord Willoughby, who made expeditions to 
 study plants and animals. Then there was Sir Robert 
 Moray, often compared to Peiresc, a miHtary man, one 
 of the privy council of Charles II, interested in science, 
 and owning his own laboratories.'' TherewasSir Mathew 
 Hale (1609-1676), Lord Chief Justice of England "who 
 
 ' Dircks, Henry, Lite and Times and Scientific Labors of the Second 
 Marquess ot Worcester. 
 
 ^ Weld, Charles R., History of the Royal Society, vol. i, p. S3. 
 ^National Biography. 
 
 * Aubrey, John, op. cit. " He was a good chymist and assisted his 
 Majestie in his chymicall operations." Vol. ii, p. 82. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 
 
 77 
 
 dedicated no small portion of his time ... to investiga- 
 tions in physics and chemistry, and even to anatomy — 
 and wrote the Essay touching the Gravitation and 
 Nongravitation of Fluid Bodies, and Diffidles Nugae 
 or Observations touching the Torricellian experiments 
 There was Evelyn, the diarist, so interested in science — 
 especially botany — that he proposed to Boyle, to found 
 with him a sort of scientists' retreat.' Kenelm Digby, 
 the well-known cavalier, who kept up a correspondence 
 with learned men,^ devised cosmetics to enhance his wife's 
 beauty,** and wrote a book on the secrets of nature about 
 useful things, especially the sympathetic cure of wounds. 
 There was Samuel Hartlib, " who distinguished himself 
 for great zeal in the improvement of natural knowledge 
 and making it useful for human life," ^ of whom Evelyn 
 says, " he was a master of innumerable curiosities and 
 very communicative." ^ There was Francis Potter, a 
 man of startling skill in mechanics, according to Aubrey, 
 who " invented and made with his own handes a paire of 
 beame compasses," and originated the " notion of trans- 
 fusion of blood" (1649).' 
 
 ^Encyclopedia Britannica. Eleventh Edition. It must be noted, 
 however, that he condemned and had executed two women on the charge 
 of witchcraft. 
 
 'Weld, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 43-49. 
 
 ^ Commerdum Epistolicum. J. Collins, etc. 
 
 ♦Trail's Social England, vol. v, p. 286 (s. c). 
 
 'Birch, Thomas, Life of Robert Boyle, p. xxxvii. 
 
 ^National Biography s. v. 
 
 'Aubrey, op. cit., ii, pp. 161-170. In the light of recent interest in 
 the question of transfusion, I quote the entire passage (p. 166): "He 
 told me his notion of curing diseases, etc., by transfusion of blood out 
 of one man into another, and that the hint came into his head reflecting 
 on Ovid's story of Medea and Jason, and that this was a matter of ten 
 years ago (hence in 1639). About a year after he and I went to trye 
 the experiment, but 'twas on a hen and the creature too little and our 
 tooles not good." 
 
78 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Also among the rich business men interest in experi- 
 ment was observable. Notable instances were Sir Wil- 
 liam Petty," son of a clothier, "who also did (s. c.) dye 
 his owne cloathes," and who later became engaged in 
 that business — famous among writers on economic sub- 
 jects, and one of the most untiring and ingenious of 
 experimenters.'' Abraham Hill,^ another business man, 
 was so interested in science that he lived at Gresham 
 College, then the centre of experimental knowledge. 
 William Molineux,'* a rich private citizen residing at 
 Dublin, was the inventor of the hygroscope. Jeremia 
 Horrox (1619-1641) and Crabtree, two private citizens, 
 made astronomical observations of great value at Hool, 
 near Liverpool.' As Sprat puts it, " The genius of ex- 
 perimenting is so much dispersed that even in this 
 nation, if there were one or two more assemblies settled, 
 
 'Aubrey, op. cit., ii, pp. 139-150. He studied anatomy in Paris; 
 made a model of a double-bottomed vessel with his own hand. Aubrey 
 calls him, "A person of an admirable inventive head, and prac,tical 
 parts. He (Sir Petty) hath told me that he hath read but little, that is 
 to say not since 25 aetat; and (thinks) had he read much as some men 
 have, he had not known so much as he does, nor should have made such 
 discoveries and improvements." 
 
 'Weld, op. cit., pp. 51-53. We have from his pen an interesting 
 scheme, which shows how he thought that experimental art should be 
 fostered and spread. In his "advice to Mr. Samuel Hartlieb for ad- 
 vancement of some particular part of learning" (1648) he proposed the 
 " establishment of Gymnasium mechanicum or a College of Tradesmen ; 
 where able mechanics being elected, Fellows might reside rent free." 
 The labors and experiments of these mechanics would be of great value 
 to "active and philosophical heads, out of which to extract that inter- 
 pretation of nature whereof there is so little and that so bad, yet extant 
 in the world. An institution which would be as careful to advance the 
 arts as Jesuits to advance religion." 
 
 'National Biography s. v. 
 
 *Rosenberger, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 209. 
 
 'Maedler, Dr. J. H. v., Geschichte der Himmtlskunde, vol. i, p. 277. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 
 
 79 
 
 there could not be wanting able men enough to carry 
 them on . . . all places and corners are busy and warm 
 about this work." ' 
 
 Among the Dutch, the figure of Johann Moritz, 
 Count of Nassau Siegen '' stands out as a science-loving 
 amateur. He was in supreme command of the Dutch 
 conquest in the New World, and utilized his exceptional 
 position both for his own study, and for supplying 
 means of study to others. Swainson praises him in 
 these words : " It is almost inconceivable how this 
 illustrious man, whose life, at this period would appear 
 to have been spent alternately in the camp and the 
 council, could find leisure even to think of science, still 
 less to have prosecuted it in his closet. Yet the ver- 
 satility of his mind, and its power of abstraction, was so 
 great that such was actually the fact. He not only 
 patronized and assisted the labors of those whjom he had 
 engaged for this purpose, but actually worked himself in 
 describing and drawing the various new animals of 
 Brazil, even in the most arduous periods of his govern- 
 ment." On his expedition to Brazil, he took with him 
 George Marcgrave, the astronomer, geographer and 
 naturalist; he built in 1639 in Mauritia an astronomical 
 observatory of stone, from which Marcgrave studied the 
 motion of the stars. He had gardens in which large 
 numbers of plants of the country were set out, cages 
 and fishponds for Marcgrave's numerous collections.^ 
 
 1 Sprat, op. cit., p. 71. 
 
 Topular Science Monthly, vol. Ixxxi, p. 252. Swainson, Wm., 
 " Taxidermy with Biography of Zoologists, in Cabinet Cyclopedia con- 
 ducted by Dionysius Lardner," pp. 259 sqq. 
 
 ^IHd., quoting Nienhoff, John, "Voyages and Travels into Brazil 
 (1640-49), in General Collection of Voyages and Travels in all Parts of 
 the World," by John Pinkerton, vol. xiv, pp. 710-711. 
 
8o THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 The Dutch were throughout the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries famous for their skill in making fine 
 instruments ; in a most real sense every grinder of lenses 
 was an amateur scientist. The famous Leuwenhoek, a 
 linen merchant, self-taught, so little educated that he 
 understood no language but Dutch, gifted however with 
 great manual skill, made a microscope just for his amuse- 
 ment.' Gradually he perfected his instrument, so that it 
 magnified to i6o diameters, and enabled him to study 
 infusoria. He had so many microscopes that he kept in 
 his investigations one microscope for one or two speci- 
 mens." 
 
 Huygens was an amateur in the same sense as Robert 
 Boyle, giving his whole life to science, but not affiliated 
 with any university.^ Van Helmontt also was a very 
 rich man who had his own laboratory. 
 
 In Germany there are famous instances of the interest 
 of amateurs. The rich merchants, the Fuggers, took the 
 scientist L'Ecluse along on their travels.- There was 
 Guericke, who, even as Mayor of Magdeburg, continued 
 his interest in experimental science, so that when the 
 city was plundered during the Thirty Years' War, he 
 turned to his skill in engineering to gain a livelihood.* 
 There was Hevelius (1611-79), the son and heir of a 
 rich brewer in Dantzig, who in 1641 built for himself an 
 observatory, the best equipped of the time, and who ground 
 his own lenses.' There was Tschirnhausen, the Saxon 
 Duke, who owned three glass factories, and was not 
 
 •Haeser, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 296. Carus, op. cit., p. 399. 
 ' Hogg, Jabez, The Microscope, its History, Construction and Appli- 
 cation, p. 7. 
 
 'Dannemann, Dr. Friedrich, op. cit. (excellent account of Huygens), 
 vol. ii, pp. 244 sqq. 
 *See above. 'Meyer, Geschichte der Botanik, vol. iv, p. 351, 
 
 •See above. ' Wolff, o^. «7., p. 321. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS gl 
 
 only devoted to science, but the originator of famous 
 physical discoveries.' There was above all Leibnitz,^ 
 who earned his livelihood as librarian at the Court of 
 Hannover, but constantly worked at physical and 
 mechanical problems. 
 
 An odd instance of the popular interest taken in 
 science to which the modern word "fad" might apply, 
 were anatomical dissections open to the public.^ 
 
 There is another mode of gauging the amateur inter- 
 est of the nations in experimental sciences other than that 
 of a biographical enumeration of such amateurs. Both in 
 France and in Germany a " popular " work on experi- 
 ment was widely read, and reached many editions. In 
 1624 Leurechon published his jRScriaizon Math^mat- 
 ique, composSe de plusieurs probl^mes plaisahts et facS- 
 tieux en faict d' arithmHique, gkomktrie, opticque, et 
 d' autres parties de ces belles sciences. This book was pub- 
 lished in seventeen editions in the next year, saw six 
 Dutch, four English translations,'' and one especially note- 
 worthy, into German by Schwenter, Deliciae physico- 
 mathematicae^ X^^S^) ■ It is one of the most instructive 
 books along the lines of this inquiry, and a perusal of its 
 pages gives a clear idea of how much of physics and 
 chemistry may have been within the possession of the 
 interested amateur. We have here the description of 
 experiments made by Schwenter, partly according to 
 
 ' Poggendorff, op. cit., pp. 442-445. 'See below. 
 
 'Puschmann, op. cit., p. 399. 
 
 * Klee, Dr. Friedrich, Die Geschichte der Physik an der Universitat 
 Altdorf bis zum Jahr 1650, p. 127. 
 
 '" The German title is : " Mathematische und Philosophische Erquick- 
 ungsstunden darinnen 663 schone, liebliche und annehmliche Kunststiick- 
 lein, Aufgaben und Fragen auf der Rechenkunst. . . . Naturkundigung 
 und anderen Wissenschaften genommen . . . alien Kunstliebenden zu 
 Ehren, Nutz, Ergotzung." 
 
82 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Leurechon's direction — all written down avowedly not 
 for study, but for amusement; the experiments are en- 
 tertaining tricks, not investigations.' 
 
 The existence of wide- spread amateur interest in 
 science has been suilficiently illustrated. With this went, 
 in many respects, a readjustment of " values." The 
 calling of an artisan, the profession of the apothecary, 
 rose to a level of respect higher than before. This spirit 
 is summarized in Leibnitz's remark : 
 
 The charlatans . . . and alchymists and . . . vagrants are often 
 people of great g-enius and experience, only they suffer from 
 a " disproportion of genius and judgment "... surely there 
 is at times in such a man more knowledge won from nature 
 and experience than in a highly respected learned man, who 
 knows how to bring that knowledge he gathered from books, 
 all ready for the market.^ 
 
 Enthusiasm for experimentation and the widespread 
 interest it aroused apparently led those devoted to science 
 to enter into more or less formal afifiliations. The 
 
 'The subject-matter of the sections on scientific questions was: 
 Part V. Optics: telescope. Schwenter enumerates seven colors 
 through a prism, similar to Newton's later theory, and 
 not four, as do all his predecessors. 
 VI. Catoptrics. 
 iVII. Astronomy and Astrology. 
 
 VIII. Clocks and Magnets. Leurechon's ingenious telegraph 
 from Rome to Paris by means of magnets is described. 
 IX. Scales and Weights. 
 X. Artificial motions. 
 
 XI. Fire and Heat. An interesting instrument to keep 
 vessel at steady temperature is described. 
 XII. Air and wind. 
 
 XIII. Water siphon, waterwheel. A primitive fountain pen is 
 described. 
 
 XIV. Chemical arts. 
 
 'Klopp, Works of Leibnitz, vol. i, p. 143. 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 83 
 
 rich and noble amateur devoted some of his wealth to 
 gathering about him men who would jointly experiment 
 and benefit by this collaboration. The professional sci- 
 entist would become the center of people who joined 
 him for instruction and whom he needed for assistance. 
 Or at times without any such external stimulus the ex- 
 perimenters would band together. 
 
 While unions among people of similar interests and 
 aspirations are natural and have their explanation in 
 man's social instinct, there were cogent reasons why 
 men engaged in scientific pursuit should co-operate. 
 With the development of science along, experimental 
 lines, the need for, and expense of, instruments was in- 
 creasing. Many departments outgrew the stage where 
 bedroom or kitchen laboratories were sufficient ; and the 
 interest in science, as we have seen, was not confined to 
 the very wealthy who could afiford to equip private lab- 
 oratories elaborately as did Boyle or the Prince of 
 Orleans. Nor was the laboratory the sole expense. 
 After a new idea was conceived, there was again the 
 great expense of making the desired objects ; Kepler 
 never saw a Kepler telescope, only devised it,^ as he had 
 not the means to procure one ; Guericke spent $20,000 
 upon his instruments.'' Banding together would seem 
 the only way to obtain means for a laboratory supplied 
 with the necessary instruments, and to obtain the means 
 of making those instruments and experiments which 
 scientific thinkers forecast in their speculations. 
 
 How could the average worker afiford his own air- 
 pump, microscope, not to speak of telescope? How 
 could he ever meet the expense of the improvements 
 
 ' Rosenberger, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 67. 
 'Dannemann, op. cit., ii, p. 167. 
 
84 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 constantly suggested, how keep a helper to grind the 
 jlasses, a servant to keep the instruments in condition? 
 rt~cannot be sufficiently emphasized that it was the ex- 
 jerimental feature of science which called forth the soci- 
 ^s.' The mathematician could have worked out his 
 pr^lems in seclusion ; the experimenter needed the 
 laboratory and this in turn could not be supplied under 
 usual circumstances by an individual, but only by a 
 society. M 
 
 These unions of scientific^ workers, though there were 
 isolated instances^oFthem before 1650, became the dom- 
 inating feature of scientific work in the second half of 
 thnrcgffttrryr-and^istinguish it from the previous decades. 
 Not that we do not still find great scientists, whose 
 work shines out quite independently — and in no way 
 depends upon learned societies. Boyle, Huygens, Leib- 
 nitz, and above all, Newton, took their place in the 
 history of science along side of Galileo and Harvey. 
 But the fact that their eff orts were asso ciated— with 
 learned societies during the greater part of their lives 
 and'"thar"tHey cooperated with^them, puts their stamp 
 of approval on the forms of scientific work represented 
 by the societies, and allows me to consider them as part 
 of these societies. 
 
 It is the main purpose of this dissertation to throw 
 some light upon the manner in which the most promi- 
 nent of these unions of amateurs crystallizing into 
 learned societies, advanced the cause of science. From 
 the nature of the case there must have existed well nigh 
 innumerable societies, great and small, but we have 
 singled out for closer study : in Italy, the " Accademia 
 del Cimento" with its precursor the "Accademia dei 
 Lincei;" in England, the "Royal Society;" in France, 
 the " Academic des Sciences ;" in Germany, the " Acad- 
 
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL SCIENTISTS 85 
 
 emia Naturae Curiosorum," the " Collegium Curiosum 
 sive Experimentale " and the Berlin Academy. These 
 were the most prominent, but many similar associations, 
 more or less shortlived, existed during the latter half of 
 the century. References are found to numerous socie- 
 ties in Italy ' — in Venice,' in Sienna, the " Academia 
 Physico-critica," ^ in Padua " Academia Constantium," * in 
 Naples, " Academia Investigantium,"^ in Rome, " Acad- 
 emica Physico-Mathematica," which maybe identical with 
 the society conducted by Jesuits, mentioned by Poggen- 
 dorflf.* Repeated mention is made of an academy in 
 Brescia, "Academia Philoexoticorum" ' (1686), of the ex- 
 perimental academy of Bologna,* centering about the 
 Duke de Marsiglio. There also existed a society at 
 Aix,9, one in Denmark at Hafnia, whose publications are 
 of some significance '° in the annals of medical science. 
 But beyond the fact of their existence, the name of their 
 founder, or of their publications, too little could be ascer- 
 tained about them to make a study of their activities 
 possible. 
 
 In the case of the larger societies, an attempt will be 
 made to sketch their stories with special emphasis upon 
 
 ' For a full list of Italian learned societies, see Biichner, Historia 
 Academiae Naturae Curiosorum, pp. 8 sqq. 
 
 'Volckerodt, Exercitationes Academicae sive Commentatio Erudi- 
 torum Societatibus, p. 20. ^ 
 
 'Biichner, op. cit., p. 11. 
 
 *Volckerodt, op. cit., p. 30. ^Ibid., p. 32. 
 
 'Biichner, op. cit., p. 11 ; PoggendorfiF, op. cit., p. 293; Volckerodt, 
 op. cit., p. 32. 
 
 'This academy published Acta Nova Academia Philoexoticorum. 
 
 'Mazzetti, Sarafino, op. cit., p. 64 sqq. 
 
 'Volckerodt, op. dt., p. 32. 
 
 ^"Acta Medica et Philosophica Hafniensia. 
 
86 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 the way they arose, the type of men who furthered their 
 establishment, helped and joined them ; what they did 
 to further the cause of experimental science either in 
 creating laboratory facilities, or in spreading scientific 
 knowledge among scientists or in educating the outside 
 public. 
 
PART II 
 LEARNED SOCIETIES AND JOURNALS 
 
CHAPTER III 
 Italian Scientific Societies 
 
 Italy was the home of the first organized scientific v/ 
 academy, the Accademia del Cimento of Florence (1657- 
 1667). It illustrates more perfectly than any other the 
 functions of such societies as centers of the cultivation of >/ 
 experiment. Here nine scientists, supplied with the 
 means of scientific research, gave ten years of united 
 efifort to the elaboration of instruments, the acquisition 
 of experimental skill and the determination of funda- 
 mental truths : so completely were their efiforts welded 
 together that their work was sent into the world like 
 that of a single individual ; so exhaustive were their labors, 
 that the book they published became the " Laboratoryj^ 
 Manual," so to speak, of the eighteenth century, and, 
 their own work and methods the model and inspiration 
 of other learned societies.' It will, therefore, be the 
 purpose of this chapter to describe in some detail this 
 Accademia del Cimento, its antecedents, its members, its 
 problems, its achievements and its failures. 
 
 Among the antecedents of the Accademia del Cimento, 
 it is customary to mention the innumerable literary so- 
 cieties which sprang up in Italy, especially the Accademia 
 della Crusca of Florence. But it seems that only two/ 
 earlier scientific societies in Italy (or for that matter 
 anywhere) could claim any direct influence upon its 
 
 ' Musschenbroek, P. van, Tentamina Experimentorum Naturalium 
 captorum in Accademia del Cimento. Preface. 
 
 89 
 
go THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 formation. Giambattista ,/della Portal (1538-1615), the\ 
 ingenious author of the mSst-ptjpuIar book on physical 
 magic or magical physics at the end of the sixteenth 
 century, the Magia Naturalis, tells in the preface of 
 an " Accademia Curiosorum hominum," " which met at 
 his home in Naples and helped him in performing ex- 
 periments. The con dition, of membeohi£.wastha^ 
 man had to have^made_some.discoyery_oii_cqrmnun^^ 
 a previousiy_junk^nqwm fact^Jn^^ science. They 
 
 calleffnthemselves " Otiosi," in the "st^enoTtFe literary 
 clubs with odd names then flourishing in Italy. The 
 gathering was referred to as "Academia S ecretorum 
 I>Jatiirae," and judging from the contents of the Magia 
 Naturalis, must have tried manifold experiments. For 
 in its twenty books are found, with a singular admixture 
 of alchemy and magic, discussions of magnetism, the 
 camera obscura, and of an apparatus which has been 
 acclaimed as a " steam engine " in its most primitive form. 
 JThe society came to its end very characteristically because 
 
 "///Delia Porta was accused of meddling with witchcraft, 
 
 /having made a "witches' salve.'"' 
 
 More important and better known is the other fore- 
 runner of the Accademia del Cimento — th e Accademj a 
 dei Lincei in Rome ( 1600-16.^0). Its device, a lynx with 
 upturned eyes, tearing a Cerberus with its claws, was to 
 symbolize the struggle of scientific truth with ignor- 
 ance. The society was formed in 160 1 by Duke Fre- 
 drigo /CS^ a man skillful in experimenting, especially 
 interested in the study of bees and plants, fond of collect- 
 ing natural objects, and in possession of a botanical 
 
 ' ' ' Nee domi meae defuit umquam curiosorum hominum academia qui 
 in his vestigandis experiendisque strenuam operam navarent." 
 
 'Carutti, C. Domenico, Breve Storia delta Accademia dei Lincei, 
 pp. 3 sqq. 
 
ITALIAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES gi 
 
 garden. At his house he met regularly three men inter- 
 ested in the same matters as he — Francesco Stelluti, 
 Anastasio de Filiis, Johannes Eckius — to discuss their? 
 studies ; these regular meetings and their communica- 
 tions in cipher soon brought on them suspicion ofl 
 poisoning, and incantation, and were therefore brokenj 
 up.' But in 1609 they w ere reorganized on a larger 
 scale; others joined, such as Delia Porta, Peiresc, 
 Galileo (1609), Fabius Colonna, the botanist, until the 
 membership rose to thirty-two.^ /Priests were excludgd ;:^ 
 The plan was to establish common " scientific, non- 
 monastic monasteries," not only in Rome, but in the 
 four quarters of the globe, for scientific cooperation, a 
 plan interesting as a forerunner of Bacon's " House of 
 Salomon." There was to be a museum, library, print- 
 ing office, besides optical instruments, machinery, botan- 
 ical gardens, laboratories — everything that belongs to 
 the study of science. In each house every observation, 
 every discovery was to be communicated without delay 
 to the head house and all the sister houses.'' ' * Their aim 
 was the study of nature ; = but beyond this, some form 
 of brotherhood was also contemplated.' I quote from 
 the Lynceographum (1612) in which the "rule of studi- 
 ous life of Lyncean philosophers is laid down."' 
 
 ''xhe Accademia dei Lincei is a gathering; which, according to 
 certain rules and regulations and united friendly councils, 
 directs its labors diligently and seriously to studies as yet little 
 cultivated. Its end is not only to acquire knowledge and wis- 
 dom for living rightly and piously, but with voice and writing 
 to reveal them unto men.' 
 
 'Carutti, op. cit., p. 12. ^Ibid., p. 24. *Ibid., p. 8. 
 
 *IUd., p. 7- ^Ibid., p. 26. 
 
 'Carutti, "Quo norma studiosae vitae Lynceorum philosophorum 
 exponitur," p. 25 (footnote). 
 'Carutti, op. cit., p. 7 (footnote). 
 
92 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 While humanistic studies were expressly included in 
 their " Praescriptiones " (1624)' — " non neglectis interim 
 amoeniarum musarum et philologiae ornamentis," ' — as 
 a matter of fact they were not cultivated. 
 
 The proceedings of this society were written down as 
 1 1 Gesta Lynceorum? and have the distinction of being 
 ' by far the earliest (1609) recorded publication of scien- 
 tific endeavors by any society. The afifiHations of Galileo 
 with the Lincei were very close. He always referred to 
 himself in the dialogues as " Academicus," and added this 
 title to his name in publishing his books. The Academy 
 published two of his works — Saggiatore (1612)* and 
 " On Sun Spots " ( 1612) .^ After the first condemnation of 
 the Copernican doctrines (1615) a bitter quarrel arose 
 within the band; Lucas Valerius resigned his member- 
 ship, " because the society, and especially Galileo, upheld 
 forbidden views; " and this must have had grave conse- 
 quences for Galileo. It was Galileo who" made a micro- 
 scope for the society, and one of its members gave 
 the instrument the name by which it is still called.* 
 Stelluti had the distinction of first applying the micro- 
 scope to the study of zoology. The society published 
 his work on bees with the proud inscription: '" Stellutus 
 Lynceus Fabrianensis microscopio observavit " (Rome 
 1625).' Fabio Colonna published important botanical 
 observations (1624). Then the society issued its most 
 ambitious work. Thesaurus Mexicanus, a description 
 of plants and animals of Mexico. With the death of 
 / Cesi (1630) the society lost its patrons; and after the 
 
 'Carutti, op. cit., p. 63. 'Ibid., p. 26. ^Ibid., p. 11. 
 
 * Strauss, Emil, op. cit., Preface, p. xli; Carutti, op. •■cit., p. 394. 
 ^Strauss, op. cit., p. xxxi; Carutti, op. cit., p. 27. 'Carutti, p. 28. 
 'Carus, J. v., op. cit., p. 394. 
 
ITALIAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 93 
 
 condemnation of Galileo (1633) the study of Physics andl 
 Astronomy became too full of dangers to be further pur- 
 sued by the society. The Academy continued for less 
 than a quarter of a century and finally, in 1657, ceased 
 to exist.' 
 
 The Accademia del Cimento, t. e., the Academy of 
 Experiment, is closely connected with the Accademia dei 
 Lincei through the personality of Galileo. For, although 
 Galileo was dead at the time of its foundation, he was 
 its spiritual father in a double sense. Firstly, the Cimento 
 was composed for the most part of his own disciples, or 
 of pupils of his two disciples, Viviani and Torricelli, to 
 whom he left the heritage of his mathematical and phys- 
 ical knowledge and experimental skill. Secondly, it was 
 dedicated in great part to the experimental proof and fur- 
 ther elaboration of problems for which Galileo and Tor- 
 ricelli had given theoretical demonstrations. 
 
 While Galileo was thus the spiritual father of this 
 Accademia, it was actually called int o , .life by the tw o 
 Medici brothers. Grand Duke Ferdinand I I and L eo- 
 pold. These, especially Leopold, were of the type of 
 science-loving amateur, so characteristic of the time in 
 all ranks of society. They had been pupils of Galileo, 
 Viviani and Torricelli, and under their inspiration learned 
 to hate scholasticism, to rely upon observation and ex- 
 perimentation. They had a laboratory, and their collec- 
 tion of instruments ° was shown with pride to all foreign- 
 ers. We hear, for instance, of Torricelli showing Leo- 
 pold's instruments to Monconys, 1646, and that the 
 
 ' Carutti, op. cit., p. 82. 
 
 ' Tozzeti, Gio Targione, Accademia del Cimento. Atti e Memorie 
 Inedite dell Accademia del Cimento (referred to as Atti e Memorie'), i, 
 pp. 153 sqq., and ii, pt. I, p. 192. 
 
94 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 ■ collection consisted of Kepler's instruments to measure 
 angles of reflection, various thermometers, eolipiles,' in- 
 struments for measuring time,' and the expansive power of 
 powder, and a microscope. The Medici had remarkable 
 collections of animals and wonderful gardens of rare 
 plants. Leopold was so interested in the question of the 
 artificial hatching of eggs that he had two Egyptians 
 come to supervise such an enterprise in his garden.^ He 
 built incubators, and in contriving instruments to regu- 
 late the heat in these, his attention was turned to the 
 study of the thermometer. The dukes instituted regular 
 meteorological observations, where several times daily 
 the temperature and height of the barometer were taken, 
 the direction of winds and the state of the clouds tabu- 
 lated, these records forming the oldest meteorological 
 tables in existence.'* 
 
 Ferdinand made copious observations on the poison of 
 snakes, 5 on the poison contained in tobacco,* on worms 
 generated in vinegar,' so it would seem that his in- 
 terests were biological and chemical. Leopold was a \ 
 very skilled and original experimenter,^ and several j| 
 most ingenious instruments and methods were attributed 
 to him. From 165 1 to 1657 we hear of gatherings ofv' 
 scientists at his study » (laboratory) alluded to as "Accad- 
 emia^del Principe,"" and a list of experiments made 
 there is preserved." The Accademia del Cimento was 
 
 '/. e.. Heron's ball, rotating through the force of steam. 
 ' Atti e Memorie, ii, Pt. i, p. 192. 
 
 'Antinori, Notizie Istoriche relative all' Accademia del Cimento, 
 p. 34- 
 *Poggendorfi, o/. «V., p. 383. 
 
 ^Atti e Memorie, vol. i, pp. 165 sqq. ''Ibid., i, p. 169. 
 
 ''Ibid., ii, pt. 2, p. 680. *Ibid., i, p. 404. '^ Ibid., i, p. 412. 
 
 ^"Ibid., i, p. 376. "Antinori, op. cit., p. 93. 
 
 fce- 
 
ITALIAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 95 
 
 merely the more formal organization of such meetingsv 
 and centred entirely about the person of Leopold. The 
 sessions were in a vast room in his residence, next to 
 his library. His instruments, — a fine telescope presented 
 to him by Campani, the best then in existence, a micro- 
 scope given by Divini, — and the services of his skillful 
 glass-blower, he put at the disposal of the experimenters.' 
 The prince defrayed all thfe expenses. But he was far 
 more than a mere financial patron. He was present at v 
 all meetings and hard at work at the experiments,'' as- 
 suming only the humble name and role of collaborator. 
 When he traveled, the meetings were interrupted or 
 moved to the place of his temporary sojourn. HisV 
 wishes and orders were the only constitution or regu- 
 lation that the Academy had.^ It was, therefore, nat^ 
 ural that when he, in 1667, became Cardinal the Acad-\ 
 emy should have been given up, though there is also a / 
 tradition that the Pope exacted its discontinuance as a/ 
 condition upon which he granted the cardinal's hat to 
 Ferdinand.* 
 
 Let us turn now to the members of the Society ; ^ 
 Vincenzo Viviagi* (1622-1713) was the most typical 
 member; he had been the constant companion of Gali- 
 leo ; so devoted, that he never put his name on a work 
 without calling himself the "last" pupil of Galileo, and^ 
 never missed an opportunity of rendering homage to him. 
 
 ' Atti e Memorie, vol. i, p. 380. ^Ibid., i, p. 404. 
 
 ^Ibid., i, p. 412. 
 
 * It is interesting to note that there are many indications that the Car- 
 dinal continued to cherish interest in his, once so beloved, natural sci- 
 ences ; he continued in correspondence with the astonomer Hevelius, 
 and Cassini; {^Atti e Memorie, i, pp. 466; ii, pt. 2, p. 349,) in 1671 sur- 
 rounded himself with learned men, and had a " History and Meteor- 
 ology of Etna" written. 
 
 ^Poggendorff, op. cit., pp. 354-372- ^Ibid., p. 360. 
 
96 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 He was also a pupil of Torricelli, and constructed foi 
 him the first barom eter. He was a prominent mathema- 
 tician and won great glory through his reconstructior 
 of Apollonius' works, which tallied with the manuscripl 
 found later.' He, with Borelli, the second most promi- 
 nent member, had the responsibility of proposing and 
 showing the experiments, 
 v Borelli (1608-1670),^ by far the most famous member 
 of the Cimento, enjoys a great name in the history ol 
 Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics and especially Physi- 
 ology.^ In his ten years' affiliation with the Cimentc 
 he was most interested in questions of air-pressure,' 
 especially in connection with the process of breathing; 
 also in questions of capillarity and experiments with the 
 pendulum. Personally, he was a peevish individual, as 
 is shown by his constant quarrels with Viviani in the 
 Academy, caused by Viviani's above-mentioned work on 
 Apollonius and in later years by his relationship to 
 Malpighi. Indeed, Antenori sees in thes e quarrels-the 
 -reason-ioriJLeacpld's final_dijgaluJdQ n of the A cademv. 
 Borelli was the only member who revolted against 
 merging his identity with his fellow-workers in the 
 Cimento, and published widely outside its publications, 
 
 ' Cantor, vol. ii, p. 608. 
 
 ' Poggendorff , op. cit., p. 354. 
 
 ' Foster, p. 61 sqq. He was a professor of Mathematics, first in Mes- 
 sina, then in Pisa (1665). In his work Theoria Mediceorum Plane- 
 tarum he was one of the closest forerunners of Newton. Of his writ- 
 ings, the best known is the posthumous work De Motu Animatium, 
 in which he reduced in Cartesian fashion all movement to a series ol 
 processes subject to exact laws of mechanics. This treatise marks a 
 great advance in Physiology, and its conclusions are accepted to-day. 
 By it Borelli became one of the founders of the latrophysical school 
 of physicians, in open opposition to and at that time in great advance 
 of the latrochemical school mentioned above. 
 
 '■Atti e Memorie, vol. ii, pt. 2, pp. 685-693. 
 
ITALIAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 97 
 
 The other members of the Academy are less well 
 known : of the two brothers Candido and Paolo del 
 Buono Candido (i6 18-1676), a pupil of Galileo, was the 
 inventor of a water-clock and several ingenious instru- 
 ments ; rPaolo was not much in Florence, but reported 
 from Vienna matters of interest, mainly relating to Leo- 
 pold's hobby — the hatching of eggs.' 
 
 The first secretary of the society was Segni ; ' he was 
 soon succeeded by Lorenzo Magalotti (i637-i7i2),3 a 
 pupil of Viviani and friend of Robert Boyle. While he 
 was fond of plants and gardening,'' he seems to have been 
 in no sense a scientist. He had great ability in literary 
 lines, and to him is due the well-finished style in which 
 the Academy finally published its proceedings. 
 
 Alesandro Marsili= seems of little importance; Antonio 
 Olivia 5 is interesting for a matter of personal history; 
 he was pursued by the Inquisition, and committed 
 suicide in prison (1668) to escape- the tortures of the 
 rack. Francesco Redi' (1626-94) was a man of stand- 
 ing in the history of zoology. He was the physician of 
 the Medici, and founder of the Medical School of Flor- 
 ence,* where he insisted on methods of instruction far in 
 advance of his time, even using vivisection. Together 
 with Steno he made microscopic researches ; and it is re- 
 markable that in his work he asserted that there was no 
 spontaneous generation, but that all insects come from 
 eggs.? 
 
 Carlo Renaldini^ was an engineer, later a professor at 
 the University of Pisa. To him the Academy gave theU 
 interesting task of refuting erroneous passages in Aris-l 
 
 1 Poggendorff, op. cit., p. 3S6. ^Atti e Memorie, vol. i, p. 447. 
 
 ' Poggendorff , op. cit., p. 358. *Atti e Memorie, vol. iii, p. 112. 
 
 ^Poggendorff, op. cit., p. 359. ^ Atti e Memorie, vol, iii, p. 175. 
 
 'Carus, op. cit., p. 404. « Poggendorff, op. cit., p. 360. 
 
■-A 
 
 98 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 totle, Pliny and Gilbert.' He also worked on the com- 
 pilation of the Saggi of the Academy." 
 
 In 1666 these men were joined by the Dane, Steno' 
 (163 1 and 1686), who had then become the physician of 
 the Medici and who ranks among the first physiologists 
 of the seventeenth century.'' His personal history is most 
 astonishing. Previously a confirmed Protestant, he later 
 became a Catholic, and ended a life given during its best 
 years to the study of science, as Bishop of TitiopoHs. 
 
 To complete here the list of persons connected with 
 the Academy, there were besides these academici operatori, 
 corresponding members, among them Michael Angiolo 
 Ricci,5 who acted as a higher judge of publications, a 
 great friend of Torricelli, interested more in the spread 
 of science than in its promotion, as is evident from his 
 editing the Giornale dei Litterati vsx Rome* ('1668-75). 
 Then there was Honore Fabri,^ a French Jesuit, theo- 
 logian, physicist, astronomer. He seems odd, even as a 
 
 ^ Atti e Memorie, vol. i, p. 377. Primo Fascio: Spoglio d'Autori 
 diversi fatti dal Sig. Dott Carlo Rinaldini I'Anno 1656. Questo non 
 era altro que un Quaderno dove alia rinfusa erano notati alcuni passi 
 d' Aristotle, di Plinio, del Gilberto, per verificarli o cofutarli coll' esper- 
 ienze. 
 
 'His most important contribution to experimental science, that of 
 suggesting the freezing and boiling-point of water as fixed points for 
 the thermometer scale, falls after the end of the Academy. 
 
 'Foster, op. cit., p. 106. 
 
 * Poggendorflf, op. cit., -p. 369. With Malpighi he was a pioneer in 
 applying a microscope to the study of physiology; with Borelli he was 
 an adherent of iatrophysical ideas. In Florence he turned his thoughts 
 to mineralogy and geology, and in 1669 published a work, De Solida 
 intra Solidum which, on its rediscovery in 1831, caused the greatest 
 sensation. For he described the earth's crust as "consisting of 
 parallel layers, containing remnants of organic matter." 
 
 ^Ibid., p. 367. "See below, ch. vii. 
 
 ' Poggendorfif , op. cit., p. 371. 
 
ITALIAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 99 
 
 correspondent of these scientists. He held a position 
 in the Inquisition, and was finally imprisoned for what 
 seems a most conservative statement, namely, that if no 
 proof be found for the Copernican system, the church 
 can decide as to its correctness, but if proof be found, 
 the Bible must be dififerently interpreted. Moreover^, 
 the Cimento was in correspondence with Thevenot, the 
 French academician, Boyle, Oldenburg, the secretary of I 
 the London Royal Society, and Huygens. Frequently ' 
 distinguished guests were present at the meetings^J 
 Cassini, on his way to Paris in 1665 ; '■ Professor Sturm 
 of Altdorf,'' who drew from the Academy the inspira- 
 tion of forming a similar society in Germany. 
 
 And what was the work of these nine academici 
 operatori in their daily sessions ? 
 
 The word " Cimento " means experiment, and this name"^ 
 excellently characterized the society. The Accademia del 
 Cimento did not permit itself to be interested in theo- 
 retical Physics; its purpose was well expressed in its J 
 motto : proban do e reproband o? They desired all efforts 
 to be concentrated upon experimentation, upon the crea^p 
 tion of instruments, upon the establishment of standard^" 
 of measurement and exact methods of research. Only in 
 this way, they conceived, could old errors be refuted, de- 
 bated matters definitely settled, and new facts accumu- 
 lated. The meetings of the Academy — always held in 
 private — were most informal. There was only one ofifi-i 
 cer, the secretary ; it was his task to prepare the materials' 
 and instruments. While to various members particular; 
 tasks were allotted ; '' for instance, to make astronomical 
 observations, to write on certain questions and examine 
 
 ' Atti e Memorie, vol. i, p. 249. 
 
 ■"Ibid., i, p. 30s. See below, ch. vi. ^Ibid., i, p. 377. 
 
 * Ibid., i, p. 412. 
 
/ 
 
 lOO THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 f certain propositions, the society as a whole worked on 
 same topic' And just as they experimented as a un it, 
 their work has come down to posterity, not in signed 
 > articles, but as one " anonymous ". contribution to the 
 I cause of science, 
 
 Magalotti in 1667, with the co-operation of the acade- 
 micians, published an account of their researches under 
 the title: Saggi di Naturali Esperienza fatte nell 
 Accademia del Cimento. A brief analysis ° of this not- 
 |able work will best illustrate the ten years' activity of the 
 Academy. It shows the members tirelessly experiment- 
 ing, constantly trying new methods, not discouraged when 
 their efforts failed ; devising elaborate apparatus, heeding 
 details previously neglected, rigorously adhering to their 
 principle — to experiment, never to speculate. 
 
 The first pages dealt characteristically with measuring 
 instruments ; ^ first of all with the thermometer. There 
 was a description of Galileo's air thermometer, then of 
 an alcohol thermometer* used by the Grand Duke of 
 Tuscany in his hatching experiments. Then there fol- 
 lowed the description of the four forms of alcohol ther- 
 mometers used by the Academy, and how they were 
 made by the glass-blowers, = the critical points still de- 
 
 ' Waller, Richard, Essays of Natural Experiments made in the Accad- 
 emia del Cimento. Written in Italian by its secretary. Englished by 
 R. Waller, p. 417. " It has always been the endeavor in our academy 
 to keep a continued thread cf experiments upon what subject so ever 
 they were made." 
 
 '' For a good summary of the contents of the Saggi : Poggendorff , op. 
 cit., pp. 377-403; Rosenberger, o/v cit., vol. ii, pp. 163-164; Gerland- 
 Traumuller, Geschichte der Physikalische Experimentierkunst (copi-^ 
 ously illustrated), pp. 154-177. 
 
 'Antenori, op. cit., pp. 12-17. 
 
 *For models of these thermometers, see Deutsches Museum, Munich, 
 Room 21 B C. 
 
 'The coarser of these thermometers were graduated into fifty divi- 
 sions; the divisions into ten parts were made carefully with the compass. 
 
ITALIAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES joi 
 
 termined by air temperature.' Then a thermometer was 
 described consisting of balls of various weights floating 
 in the alcohol, and which measured temperature on the 
 principle that as the alcohol expanded and became of 
 lower specific gravity, certain balls would sink to the 
 bottom.'' 
 
 Then hygrometers were taken up.^ An instrument 
 was described, devised by Ferdinand, measuring the 
 moisture of air by allowing it to be condensed on a vessel 
 filled with ice. The water drops were caught into a 
 graduated cup and the itme it took to reach the succes- 
 sive marks served as the measure of the moisture of the 
 air. With this hygrometer they found that southwest 
 winds carry more humidity than north and south winds.'* 
 
 Then the pendulum = as an exact time-measuring in- 
 strument was studied. " There is need," the Saggt said, 
 "of an instrument more exact than the eye or the 
 sound of strokes ; for it is difficult to distinguish whether 
 the time is just upon the point marked, or already past 
 when the striking commences." The Academy first de- 
 
 the subdivisions with the eye. They were marked off with black 
 glass pearls, every tenth with a white pearl. The skilled glass-blowers 
 could make several of these thermometers to correspond accurately in 
 their registration of temperature. The next finer instruments were 
 divided into one hundred degrees, and one — the most sensitive — was 
 divided into three hundred degrees. To attain such exactness the tube 
 was made spiral, and with its three hundred little knobs showed re- 
 markable skill in the maker. 
 
 'The society, it may be noted, never, in spite of its extensive experi- 
 mentation with thermometers, conceived the idea of adding a scale, or 
 of deriving the critical points from the freezing and boiling point of 
 water. 
 
 'For model: Deutsches Museum, Munich, Room 17 K. 
 
 'Antenori, op. ctt., pp. 17-19. For model: Deutsches Museum, 
 Munich, Room 21 N. 
 
 *Poggendorff, op. cit., p. 388. 'Antenori, op. ctt., pp. 19-21. 
 
I02 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 vised the bifilary suspension of the pendulum and the 
 method of regulating its vibrations along one plane by 
 wooden guides. The invention of the pendulum clock 
 is here wrongly claimed for Vincenzo, Galileo's son. 
 A clock pendulum beating half seconds is described.' 
 
 ^he first series ' of the experiments given in the Saggi, 
 related to " that famous experiment of mercury now 
 spread throughout Europe which first in 1643 ofifered 
 itself to the thoughts of the ingenuous Torricelli."3 
 Torricelli's and Roberval's experiments were repeated 
 and objections refuted by experiment. The society very 
 legitimately questioned whether the mercury registered 
 the pressure of all the air or only that beneath the 
 mercury. To answer this query, an elaborate apparatus 
 was devised, careful experiments were made, and the 
 fact definitely established that the pressure of all sur- 
 rounding air was registered. They repeated in a most 
 original manner on the tower of Florence, Pascal's ex- 
 periment * to show that atmospheric pressure decreased 
 in greater altitudes. ^ Putting the mercury column to 
 another practical use, they devised an instrument for 
 measuring the specific gravity of liquids by their com- 
 parative pressure upon mercury. 
 
 'For model: Deutsches Museum, Munich, Room 32 B. 
 
 'Antenori, op. cit., pp. 23-42. 
 
 'Waller, op. cit., p. 13. *See above. 
 
 'They took a flask with two arms, filled it with mercury, then sealed 
 up one side and carried the flask to the top of the tower; there they saw 
 that the two ends of mercury were no longer on a level, the air in the 
 sealed part pressing heavier than the outside air. They conceived that 
 such an instrument might be of service in measuring the height of the 
 tower, and thought of adding a graduated strip of parchment for that 
 purpose. Gerland-Traumiiller, op. cit., p. 161. They were sufficiently 
 exact to realize that the temperature must be measured on the top 
 of the tower and below, and that in case of discrepancy their results 
 would be erroneous ; that therefore they must select cloudy days or 
 the time of sunrise for their experiments. 
 
ITALIAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 103 
 
 In the second series' they described instruments for 
 measuring the variation of atmospheric pressure : in the 
 third series ' vacuum experiments. For these experiments 
 at first not the air pump but the barometric vacuum 
 was used. For TorricelU's way of testing the effect of 
 the vacuum on insects was to have them crawl through 
 the mercury. This the Academy soon found to be a 
 fallacious method ; they therefore adopted Guericke's 
 pump. 3 They tested whether water drops retained their 
 spherical shape in a vacuum, whether heat and cold 
 acted normally, whether Kepler's laws of lenses held 
 good, whether the amber retained its electric, the magnet 
 its magnetic, properties. They were much astonished to 
 find that the vacuum did not affect electricity and that 
 capillarity was a phenomenon independent of air pres- 
 sure. They tried to devise an apparatus so as not to 
 hear sound in the vacuum, but did not succeed.* They 
 repeated " that noble observation of Mr. Boyle of the 
 boiling of warm water " = and the action of snow, of smoke, 
 of solutions of pearls and coral in the vacuum. Borelli 
 made experiments which demonstrated the truth of the 
 hitherto unproved assertion, that air was necessary to life :* 
 He suddenly removed air from animals by Boyle's pneu- 
 matic machine — they fell down dead ; if air was instantly 
 renewed with care they could be brought to life again. 
 Such experiments were made on twenty different ani- 
 mals, frogs, birds, fishes, etc. 
 
 In the fourth series ' the much-discussed problem of 
 
 'Antenori, op. cit., pp. 43-48. 'Ibid., pp. 48-75. 
 
 'Boyle's air-pump, as they wrongly called it, alluding to it as "the 
 pump he described but could not make." 
 *They realized that they' obtained only a partial vacuum. 
 'Waller, op. cit., p. 57. ^Antenori, op. cit., pp. 67-75. 
 
 ''Ibid., pp. 77-ioS- 
 
I04 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 artificial freezing was taken up; this problem included 
 more than its name suggests, for — say the Saggi: " some 
 have thought that cold turns water into the hardest rock 
 crystal and gems of various colors according to different 
 tinctures received from neighboring mineral streams." ' 
 They attested the expansion caused by freezing by 
 noting that it cracked vessels of most varied substances, 
 and wanted to utilize this force for practical purposes. 
 They added exact tables of their freezing experiments. 
 
 The fifth series," " On Natural Cold," contained a fam- 
 ous experiment on radiant heat.' 
 
 The sixth series'* dealt with the effects of heat and cold 
 on various objects. The scientists had so often to freeze 
 and boil water that they had noticed various peculiarities 
 and decided to examine these very carefully. Thus they 
 put the Aristotelian idea of " antiperistasis " to a test.^ Tt 
 seemed to be confirmed by the fact that when an instru- 
 ment was submerged in ice, the alcohol of the ther- 
 mometer for a second rose before it fell, and vice versa. 
 The experimenters drew, however, the right conclusion, 
 that this was due to the relative inequality of contraction 
 and expansion of the glass, that antiperistasis was a fal- 
 lacy, and they even devised an instrument wherewith they 
 demonstrated it. Then they studied the more general 
 problem of expansion of solid bodies through heat; yet 
 
 'Waller, op. cit., p. 69. 
 
 'Antenori, op. cit., pp. 107-115. 
 
 ' Five hundred pounds of ice were placed so that the cold air struck a 
 concave mirror; a thermometer was placed in the focus of the mirror, 
 and it was found that the temperature was much lower there than in 
 the rest of the room. 
 
 *Antenori, op. cit., pp. 115-125. 
 
 *It was assumed by Aristotle and his followers that bodies on being 
 first heated grow cold, and on being cooled grow warm. This was 
 called antiperistasis. 
 
ITALIAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 105 
 
 never does one meet in their pages any speculation \ 
 as to what heat itself is, — for speculation was prohibited;''^ 
 in their meetings. 
 
 The seventh series' dealt with the question of the 
 compressibility of water. Here they experimented with 
 great painSj^^tra even after many negative results, made 
 onlj*"'tlxL'1fTost conservative statement that it was evident 
 that in comparison with air, water resisted an " infinitely 
 higher pressure." 
 
 The eighth series" is most interesting historically, as 
 it refutes experimentally the existence of positive light- 
 ness, by showing that smoke and the like do not rise in 
 a vacuum, and therefore their rise under normal atmos- 
 pheric conditions is only due to their being lighter than air. 
 
 The ninth series' dealt with magnetism, for instance 
 with the question whether liquids change the force of 
 magnetism ; the tenth series •• with amber. Here the 
 Saggi relapse into old ways by proving scientific points 
 with quotations from Plato and Plutarch. The eleventh 
 series = treated of the changes of colors in liquids, e. g., 
 the properties of litmus paper. The twelfth series* 
 studied the velocity of sound, repeating the experiments 
 of Gassendi and Mersenne, whereby the velocity was cal- 
 culated by measuring the diflference of time between the 
 lightning and the thunder. The thirteenth series' related 
 experiments the Academy devised with which to prove 
 certain statements of Galileo. One of his fundamental 
 theorems — that a projectile thrown horizontally reaches 
 the ground in the same time as one dropped vertically ' 
 from the same height — was demonstrated by experiment. 
 
 ' Antenori, op. cit., pp. 127-130. '^ Ibid., pp. 131-135- 
 
 »/*jrf., pp. 137-141- '■Ibid., pp. 143-147. 
 
 'IHd., pp. 149-153- '•Ibid., pp. 155-159- 
 ''Ibid., pp. 161-164. 
 
I06 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Galileo's assertion, that the air offers resistance to fall- 
 ing bodies, was ingenuously illustrated by letting similar 
 bodies drop from different heights upon a sheet of tin, 
 showing that the body falling through a greater distance 
 made less of an impact upon the tin. The fourteenth 
 series ' dealt with a variety of topics, with the question 
 of the weight of air, the effects of cold, whether glass 
 and crystal were penetrable by smell or moisture. The 
 Academy tried to answer experimentally Galileo's ques- 
 tion, whether the transmission of light required time. 
 The ingenious experiments gave negative results, because 
 the distance at which they were undertaken was much 
 too small to permit the computation of the velocity of 
 light. Phosphorescence was studied, and lastly, surely 
 under Borelli's inspiration, the digestive processes in 
 animals were investigated. x^-ss^ 
 
 ^ These are the contents of the famous ^a^^ The 
 book at first caused no commotion. The first edition 
 was very expensive and could not be bought at book- 
 shops." Italian was not read outside of Italy. More- 
 over it took some time before it became known abroad. 
 A copy was sent by Magalotti to the Royal Society, 
 March 12th, 1668, and Lord Brouncker seeing how 
 important the experiments were, had the book translated 
 by Richard Waller in 1684.3 In 1731 P. von Musschen- 
 broek translated it into Latin as Tentamina experimen- 
 torum naturalium captorum in Accademia del Cimento, 
 and this was the edition which formed, as has been said 
 
 , above, t he labora tory manual of the following age. In 
 1755 the 5a^^? were translated into the French Collection 
 AcadSmique. In 1780 Gio Targione Tozzetti published 
 them again as part of a greater work in three volumes 
 
 'Antenori, op. cit., pp. 165-175. 
 
 'AtH e Memorie, vol. i, p. 459. 'Waller, op. cit., Preface. 
 
ITALIAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 107 
 
 — the Atit e Memorie del Accddemia del Cimento. This 
 contains a most essential supplement to the Saggi, 
 for here are given on the basis of diaries of the members, 
 mainly Segni's, a list of many topics investigated by the 
 Academy which did not find their way into the Saggi;^ 
 there are zoological researches on fishes, vipers, frogs 
 and worms ; very extensive astronomical observations — 
 on Saturn and its rings, the academicians' view of the 
 controversy raging between Huygens and Divini;'' ob- 
 servations on Jupiter, on the eclipses of the moon and sun 
 and the comets; and (it seems odd to find it) a defence 
 of the Copernican system from the hands of Borelli, in 
 reply to its opponent Ricciolo.^ The most beautiful 
 reprint of the Saggi is that of Antinori in i84i.'' 
 
 As time goes on, the work of the Cimento is more/ 
 and more appreciated. In books on the history of 
 Physics and experimentation, it is generally admitted that 
 it forms an epoch in these sciences. It is the beginning 
 of modern Physics. As Poggendorff puts it : " Few 
 bodies have so well fulfilled their aims ; the academicians 
 solved the problems they proposed to themselves; we 
 stand today on their shoulders." = Rosenberger says 
 of the members of the Cimento : 
 
 These first scientific academicians of modem times raised — to 
 the best of their ability — physical questions from the level of 
 doubt to that of certainty. Their measurements were most 
 careful ; many measuring: instruments owe their origin to 
 them. They showed themselves most cautious thinkers, and/|V_ 
 did not draw the false conclusions which would seem inevitable. " 
 
 ^Ibid., vol. ii, pt. 2, pp. 615-798. 
 
 ^Ibid., vol. i, p. 382. 'Ibid., ii, pt. 2, p. 7QI. 
 
 *To this the references have been made. 
 
 'Poggendorff, op. cit., p. 351. 
 
io8 THE ROLE OF THE SCWNTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 /But their aim was to be exclusively and solely experimental 
 ''physicists, and therefore they contributed only to the determi- 
 nation of definite facts, but not to the development of fertile 
 "-physical theories. . . . The value of their results was enhanced 
 by the fact that in the phase of scientific work they adopted, 
 joint effort was most effective; for united forces and united 
 means make for better experimentation, while they woujd not 
 make for clearer thought or more prolific inventions.' 
 
 Rosenberger, however, to whom experimentation per se 
 always seems undesirable, laments this limitation of the 
 Academy to experiment, and sees in it an element of exag- 
 geration. He emphasizes that the great Galileo was by 
 no means exclusively an experimenter, and that only 
 his pupils in the first, second and third generations, 
 devoted themselves entirely to it; hence, in his view, 
 the Cimento did not represent the beginning, but the 
 end of the most glorious epoch of Italian science. He 
 
 /(ioes not, however, hold the Academy but political 
 and religious influences responsible for what he calls the 
 onesidedness of the Cimento and suggests, that since the 
 
 , / discovery of facts was less dangerous than drawing con- 
 
 ' elusions from investigations, the scientists confined their "^ 
 
 ^ efforts to experiments only.° 
 
 It is true that with the extinction of the Accademia 
 ;del Cimento, Italy's leadership in Physics ceased. Her 
 one-time preeminence in matters scientific reduced itself 
 to furnishing Europe with the best telescopes and 
 microscopes, and for a century Italians were the most 
 famous makers of thermometers, and mechanical and 
 optical instruments.^ /But it would be drawing an un- 
 
 ' Rosenberger, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 16^ sg. ^Ibid., pp. 165 sq. 
 
 'It is interesting that Poggendorff suggests that Italy continued to 
 furnish France with its great scientists. 
 
ITALIAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 109 
 
 warranted conclusion, to say that over-emphasis on ex- 
 perimentation caused this. Indeed, this emphasis on 
 experimentation, elaboration of instruments, and experi- 
 mental methods, was a condicio sine qua non of scienti fic 
 progress, and if the Accademia deT Cimento stood for 
 this, it certainly merits an important place in the history 
 of experimental science. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Royal Society 
 
 We turn now from the long defunct Accademia del Ci- 
 mento to the great learned societies of England and France, 
 which continue to exist to this day. While they resembled 
 the Cimento in spirit, — since the perfecting of instruments 
 and the cultivation of experimentation was their aim from 
 the beginning, and they continued the investigation of 
 many problems first suggested by the Cimento, — they are 
 in, many respects very different. 
 
 ' •' Neither the London Royal Society nor the Academic des 
 Sciences was called into life by a sovereign powery as the 
 Cimento was by the Medici, but arose out of informal spon- 
 taneous gatherings of d evotees of experimental sc ience. 
 ^scholars _and am ateurs. The royal edict did not create them, 
 but only gave a definite and therefore more enduring form 
 t o their prev ious organization. The interests of both these 
 bodies were not so entirely scientific as that of the Cimento ; 
 they were well nigh all-comprehensive, and seemed to sub- 
 scribe to the motto nihil humanum a me alienum puto. 
 I Side by side with purely scientific problemsy there went a 
 consideration of things relating to trade and commerce and 
 manufacture ; and it was this phase of their interests which, 
 especially i n the first instanc e^won them the royal patron- 
 age. Another essential difference was that in neither the 
 English nor the French society was there that submergence 
 of the i ndividual into corporate effo rt/which was so interest- 
 ing a feature of the Cimento; persM ial ambitio ns were by 
 I in ' 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY m 
 
 no mean s abse nt in these associatio ns but came into ful l 
 pla^^, engendering on the one hand that healthful emulation ! 
 which is conducive to progress, but on the other giving rise 1/ 
 in some cases to intense jealousies which are a blot on the 
 record of their work. 
 
 The English and French societies have the special dis- 
 tinction that their form of organization and their methods 
 were destined to become the model not only of the Berlin 
 Academy, which was founded just as the century expired, 
 but of the many learned societies established during the 
 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; so that in studying^ 
 their origin we study an important chapter of intellectual / ■ 
 history closely connected with important intellectual efforts) 
 of our own days. 
 
 While the Royal Society and the Academic des Sciences 
 had many elements in common with the Cimento, they 
 nevertheless differed much from one another. The Frenchv^ 
 society was so c omplet ely under r oyal protection that it 
 shows some of the r igidity of a governm ent i nstitutio n ; 
 the English society, supported hardly more than in namev 
 by royalty, remained even after its incorporation, pre- 
 eminently anjnformal organizatian, retaining its amateur 
 features. Here, indeed, alTtHe elements out of whic h mod- 
 em scie nce developed can clearly be traced : conscious fidel- 
 ity to tEe program sketched by HBacon ; close study of 
 Galileo's, Torricelli's and Harvey's work; a union of the 
 most diverse types of men — ^business men, divines, nobles, 
 scholars and physicians ; interest in all matters affecting life. 
 Moreover, a recognition of the importance of the inter- 
 communication of_ideas gave rise to thejestabIisEment_o f 
 th^^st periodical scie ntific publ ication. Hence a study j' 
 of the~ongm and the early years of the English society 
 furnishes a clear idea of the milieu in which natural science 
 was fostered. 
 
1 12 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Bishop Sprat, in his History of the London Royal So- 
 ciety, writes : 
 
 If my desires could have prevailed with some excellent friends 
 of mine who engaged me to this work, there should have been 
 no other preface to the History of the Royal Society but some 
 of Bacon's writing.^ 
 
 He undoubtedly expressed herein the deep truth, that 
 ([Bacon's teachings were influencing the minds and thoughts 
 I of all the men who were connected with the founding of 
 this society. 
 
 The story of its beginning is as follows : The RoyaJ So- 
 ciety was the result of informal meetings of men more or 
 less learned, but all deeply interested in experimental 
 knowledge. The account of the earliest of such meetings 
 that can directly be connected with the Royal Society is 
 the following from a letter of Wallis : ^ 
 
 About the year 1645 while I lived in London (at a time when 
 by our civil wars academical studies were much interrupted in 
 both our Universities) ... I had the opportunity of being 
 acquainted with diverse worthy persons, inquisitive into natural 
 philosophy and other parts of human learning, and particularly 
 of what has been called New Philosophy or Experimental 
 PMlosophy^ ' We did" by agr eemen"f73ivefSe^'fTis-,-ni:eet weekly 
 innon3on on a certain day, to treat and discourse of such af- 
 fairs, of which number were Dr. John Wilkins, Dr. Jonathan 
 Goddard, Dr. George Ent, Dr. Glisson, Dr. Merret, Mr. Samuel 
 Foster, then Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, Mr. 
 Theodore Hank (a German of the Palatinate then resident in 
 
 'Sprat, Thomas, History of the Royal Society of London for the 
 Improvement of Natural Knowledge (1667), p. 35. This is the only 
 contemporaneous account extant. 
 
 "Quoted from "Dr. Wallis's account of some passages of his own 
 life" (1696). Weld, Charles R., A History of the Royal Society, i, 
 p. 30 sqq. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 1 1 3 
 
 London, who I think gave the first occasion, and first sug- 
 gested those meetings), and many others. These meetings 
 were held some times at Dr. Goddard's lodging in Wood Street 
 ... on occasion of his keeping an operator in his house for 
 grinding glasses for telescopes and microscopes ; s ometim es at 
 a convenient place in Cheapside and sometimes at Gresham 
 College ^ or some place near adjoining. 
 
 Let us consider for a moment these men, as we shall then 
 the better understand their program of work. 
 
 First, as to the scientists: JohnWallis_( 1616-1703)^ had 
 from his childhood been interested in mathematics, " though 
 mathematics at that time with us was scarce looked on as 
 academical, but rather mechanical — as the business of 
 tradesmen." He had gone to Cambridge and there studied 
 mathematics and medicine, but had acquired a thorough 
 knowledge of contemporaneous continental work in 
 geometry, through independent study. Thus prepared to 
 be a professor of mathematics, he had to leave Cambridge 
 because " that study had died out there, and no career was 
 open to a teacher of that subject ",' and eventually he re- 
 ceived the Savilian professorship of Oxford (1649-1702). 
 He was the greatest pre-Newtonian English mathematician] 
 and through his important work, The Arithmetic of /w-lf' 
 finite simals, paved the way to Newton's discovery of thel 
 calculus. 
 
 ~~5r. John_Willdns (1614-1672)^ was the son of a gold- 
 smith, " a very ingeniose man, and had a very mechanicall 
 head. He was much for trying experiments and his head 
 ran much upon the perpetuall motion." * Mathematician 
 and astronomer, he had by 1645 written various books on 
 
 'At M^. Foster's lodging most likely. 
 
 'National Biography. Sub verba, Aubrey, John, op. cii., ii, p. 281. 
 ' MulHnger, James Bass, The University of Cambridge, iii, p. 462. 
 * Aubrey, John, op.cit., ii, p. 299. 
 
114 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 the moon and earth as a planet ^ and was much interested in 
 cryptography. In 1650 he was appointed warden of Wad- 
 ham College, Oxford. 
 
 Samuel Foster ^ was professor of astronomy at Gresharn 
 College and has the distinction of having been expelled tem-| 
 porarily for refusing to kneel at the Communion table.l 
 Most of his work was on astronomical instruments. 
 
 As to the physicians, they were all associated with the Royal 
 College of Physicians. Dr. Goddard (161 7-1 674), Crom- 
 well's physician, was professor of medicine at Gresham \ 
 College; there he " lived and had his laboratory for Chymis- t 
 trie," also for pharmacological purposes. It is known \j 
 that he sold drops to Charles II for two thousand pounds, i 
 In his laboratory he made a number of experirnepts for the A 
 Royal Society. " They made him their drudge, for when v 
 any curious experiment was to be done they would lay the 
 task on him." " He was the chemist of this company. 
 E ^. En t* (died 1679) and DrjGlisson^ were friends of Har- 
 vey, the latter the first to teach the circulation of the blood.' 
 /They represented thus the physiologists and anatomists of 
 the society. Dt\Merret,^ another friend of Harvey, made 
 large collections of British plants and represented the 
 botanists. Hank^ seems to have had no specialized interests. 
 
 Returning from these biographical considerations to 
 Wallis's letter," we read : 
 
 ]l Our business was (p recludi ng matters of theology and state 
 /fiffairs) to discourse and consider Philosophical Enquiries and 
 Isuch as related thereunto: as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, 
 jAstrorrom2;j^^N^^^^, Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, Me- 
 
 ' Cantor, M., op. cit., iii, p. 339. ' National Biography, sub verba. 
 'Aubrey, John, op. cit., i, p. 268. 
 
 *Haeser, H., op. cit., ii, p. 252. Dr. Ent published Harvey's book, 
 De generatione animalium. 
 'Weld, op. cit., i,pp. 31 sq. 1 
 
THE RO YAL SOCIETY 1 1 5 
 
 chamcks.. and natural Experiments; \yith the state of these 
 studies, as_j^en cultivated at home and a.broad. We then dis- 
 coursed of the circulation of the blood, the valves in the veins, 
 the venae lacteae, the lymphatick vessels, the Copernican hypo- 
 thesis, the nature of comets and new stars, the satellites of 
 Jupiter, the oval shape (as it then appeared) of Saturn, the 
 spots in the sun, and its turning on its own axis, the inequalities 
 and selenography of the Moon, the several phases of Venus 
 and Mercury, the improvement of telescopes, and grinding of 
 glasses for that purpose, the weight of air, the possibility, or 
 impossibility of vacuities, and nature's abhorrence thereof, the 
 Torricellian experiment in quick-silver, the descent of heavy 
 bodies, and the degrees of acceleration therein; and divers 
 other things of like nature. S ome of which were t henJbut new 
 ,'^scoveries, and others_not^so^nerall2! known^and embraced, 
 ^as now they are, with other thi^igs appertaining to what hath 
 ^been called the New Philosophy, which from the times of 
 ;' Galileo at Florence, and Sir Francis Bacon in England, hath 
 beeiTTnuch cultivated in Italy, France, Germany, and other 
 parts abroad, as well as with us in England. 
 
 The letter goes on to speak of the continuation of these 
 \London meetings in Oxford^ ^ 
 
 About the year 1648-1649 some of our company being re- 
 moved to Oxfordj our company divided. T hose inJ London 
 
 ' It is a debated question whether meetings of the same type previously 
 existed independently in Oxford about the person of Sir William Petty, 
 and were only strengthened by the London contingent. The corre- 
 spondence of Boyle and Hartlib, 1646-1647 (see Birch, Life of Robert 
 Boyle, i, p. xxix), contains frequent allusions to an "Invisible College " 
 and points beyond doubt to the existence of such a gathering. More- 
 over, Sprat, op. cit., p. 53 (a great Oxford admirer), writing his history 
 in 1667, mentions only such Oxford meetings as antecedents of the 
 Society. "The University had at that time many members of its 
 own, who had begun a free way of reason and was frequented by some 
 gentlemen whom the misfortunes of the kingdom drew thither." Yet, 
 according to Wallis' letter which we are quoting, the Oxford meetings 
 are but the London meetings transferred. 
 
1 16 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 continued to meet there as before (and we with them, when 
 
 weHad occasr6n"To be there; and those of us at Oxford with 
 
 Dr. Ward (since Bishop of Salisbury), Dr. Ralph Bathurst 
 
 (now President of Trinity College in Oxford), Dr. Petty, Dr. 
 
 Willis (then an eminent physician in Oxford), and divers 
 
 others, c ontinu ed such meetings in Oxford,.jtnd_broughtJtbase 
 
 .stiidie.s into fashion ±her.e ; meeting first at Dr. Petty's lodgings 
 
 I (in an apothecarie's house), because of the convenience of in- 
 
 I specting drugs and the like, as there was occasion ; and after 
 
 ' his remove to Ireland, at the lodgings of Dr. Wilkins, then 
 
 , Warden of Wadham College, and after his removal to Cam- 
 
 \ bridge, at the lodgings of the Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle, 
 
 then resident for divers years in Oxford.'^ 
 
 / We have the testimony of Aubrey,^ Evelyn ' and others 
 jlthat through Wilkins's influence a veritable deluge of 
 Iscientific interest invaded Wadham CoUeig e. There resided 
 ^ Seth Ward, Christopher Wren and Rooke, all enthusiasts 
 of the new study. Seth Ward (1617-1688) was a fellow- 
 student of Wallis in mathematics. He was expelled from 
 his alma mater for refusing to subscribe to the League and 
 Covenant ; * and was prevailed upon to take the Savilian 
 professorship of astronomy.' He was so enthusiastic that 
 
 'Weld, op. cit., i, p. 33. 
 
 'Aubrey, op. cit., ii, p. 301, says of Wilkins: " He was the principall 
 reviver of experimental! philosophy {^secundum mentem domini Baconi) 
 at Oxford, where he had weekely an experimental! philosophical! clubbe 
 . . . which was the incunabula of the Royal! society." 
 
 •Wells, J., Oxford University College Histories, Wadham, p. 73. 
 Evelyn says bf Wilkins : " He has in his lodgings and gallery a variety 
 of shadows, dials, perspective and many other artificial mathematical 
 and magical curiosities, a waywiser, a thermometer, a monstrous mag- 
 net, most of them of his own or of Chr. Wren." 
 
 * Aubrey, John, op. cit., ii, p. 284. 
 
 'Mullinger, James Bass, op. cit., iii, p. 315, relates that he was per- 
 suaded by the following argument: "If you refuse, they'll give it to 
 some cobbler, who never heard the name of Euclid and mathematics, 
 who will snap at it eagerly for salaries' sake." 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 
 
 117 
 
 he preferred to all comers gratuitous instruction. G bristo - 
 ph er Wren (i 631 -1723), mainly remembered by posterity 
 for his architectural abilities, was one of those rare geniuses 
 whose mind seemed to compass apparently the most diverse'i' 
 subjects of human inquiry. At Oxford he ranked high in 
 his knowledge of anatomical science;^ he was the suc- 
 cessor of Seth Ward as Savilian professor of astronomy, 
 and constantly engaged in experiments at his chambers 
 in Wadham with Wilkins. Prominent in this group of 
 enthusiasts was Laurence Rook e (1623-1662), so devoted 
 a pupil of Seth Ward that he made him the sole beneficiary 
 of his will.^ He acted as Boyle's assistant in his chemical 
 o peratio ns until in 1652 he was called to Gresham College, 
 first as professor of astronomy and later as pioieasor 
 of geometry. He was called the " greatest man in England! 
 for solid learning, not excepting botany, music and divin-( 
 ity "," and Aubrey relates, " he took his sickness of which 
 he dyed by setting up often for astronomical observa- 
 tions." * Dr. Bathurst, who w^s mentioned in Wallis' 
 letter, lived at Worcester College, which seems at this time 
 to have been the centre of some scientific interest.** Dr. 
 Thomas Willis ( 162 1 -1675) was a student of medicine and 
 
 'Weld, op. cii., i, p. 273. His ability as a demonstrator, and his 
 attainments in anatomy generally, were acknowledged with praise by 
 Dr. Willis in his Treatise on the Brain, for which Wren made all the 
 drawings. 
 
 ' National Biography, sub verbo. 
 
 ^Ibid. 
 
 * Aubrey, John, op. cit., ii, p. 204. 
 
 ^C. H. Daniel, W. R. Barker, Oxford University College Histories, 
 Worcester, p. 125. There lived Thomas Allen : "The vulgar did verily 
 believe him to be a conjurer; He had a great many mathematical instru- 
 ments and glasses in his chamber which did also confirm the ignorant 
 in their opinion ; and his servitor . . would tell them that sometimes 
 he would meet spirits coming up his stairs. . . . There went from hand 
 to hand a volume of letters concerning chemical and magical secrets." 
 
Il8 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 the natural sciences, especially chemistry.^ In 1660 he held 
 the Sedleian chair of natural philosophy. He was one of 
 the foremost English physicians and the author of an epoch- 
 making work on the brain. ^ 
 
 '^The union of these scientists bore the name, " Philosoph i- 
 /c al Society of Oxfor d," and its regulations are preserved.* 
 \Their weekly meetings are thus characterized by Sprat : 
 
 Their proceedings were rather by action than discourse^ 
 chiefly attending some particular trials in Chymistry or Me- 1 
 chanicks ; they had no rules nor method fixed. Their intention T 
 was more to communicate to each other their discoveries which I 
 they could make in so narrow a compass, than united, constant I 
 and regular disquisitions.* 
 
 /- Birch relates that these men, " be ing satisfied tha t there 
 was no certain way of arriymg;^at_comget«it knowledge_un- 
 lesslBey madfe a variety of experiments upon na.tural bodies 
 m'~orS^^°^^s^w^~w^€^'&nom(tn& they wotild produce, 
 pursued that method by themselves, with great industry and 
 
 kcofiimumcated it to^ach ojher." " Some interesting hints as 
 
 ' For an excellent account of Willis, see Haeser, H., op. cit., ii, p. 382. 
 He understood the great significance of chemistry in the study of physi- 
 ology. In opposition to current views he spoke of an animal "psyche." 
 Aubrey, John, op cit., ii, p. 303 sq. 
 
 ' In this he described what is still known in the anatomy of the brain 
 as " the circle of Willis." 
 
 Something has been said above in Ch. II., about Dr. Petty, the sci- 
 entific business man, and Robert Boyle, the foremost scientific amateur 
 of England during the century. 
 
 'Quoted by Weld, op. cit., i, pp. 33 sq., from MS. in Ashmolean 
 Museum. I cite one interesting regulation : " If any man does not duly 
 on the day appointed perform such exercise or bring in such experiment 
 as shall be appointed for that day, or in case of necessity provide that 
 the course be supplied by another, he shall forfeit two shillings six pence 
 and shall perform his task notwithstanding . ' ' 
 
 * Sprat, op. cit., p. 56. 
 
 'Birch, Life of Robert Boyle, i, p. xxxiii. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY ng 
 
 to their work are printed among the notes of Wood's Diary 
 (1659) under the caption "The Royall Societe at Oxon, 
 and of Chemistry " : 
 
 They did in Clerk's house, an apothecary, exercise themselves 
 in some chemical extracts, .... in so much that severall 
 Scholars had private Elaboratories and did perform those 
 things, which the memory of man could not reach. But t he 
 onejnan_thatjlid_pubHckly..tea^^ 
 
 Stalil.i . . . brought to Oxon by Mr. R. Boyle and by him 
 settled in the same house wherein he lived, . . . where, con- 
 tinuing a year or two and taking to him disciples, (he) in 
 time translated himself to a tenement near it, and then to an 
 ancient hall called Rain Inn, in the old refectory of which he 
 erected an elaboratorie and taught several classes. Among 
 such that he taught were Dr. John Wallis, Mr. Christopher 
 Wren, Mr. Nathaniel Crew, Dr. Ralph Bathurst, Dr. Richard 
 Lower." $- 
 
 /This laboratory of Stahl's seems the one sometimes re- 
 ferred to as fitted up for the Oxford society.* 
 
 ' Not to be confused with the great Stahl. 
 
 •Clark, Andrew, The Life and Times of Anthony Wood, Antiquary 
 of Oxfotd (1632-169S). described by himself, i, p. 290. And another 
 account (1663) by the same pen {ibid., i, p. 473): "There began a 
 coiirse of chemistry of Stahl. The club consisted of ten, among whom 
 was John Locke." 
 
 " Wordsworth, Scholae Academicae — Some Account of Studies at Eng- 
 lish Universities in the Eighteenth Centuiy, p. 176. 
 
 Weld, op. cit., i, pp. 43 sqq. : How much the need of a common 
 meeting ground was felt is evidenced by a letter written September i, 
 i6SQ. by Evelyn to the rich bachelor Boyle, for erecting a ' ' Philosophic- 
 Mathematical College." He proposed to purchase property within 
 twenty-five miles of London, have apartments or cells for members of 
 the society " somewhat after the manner of the Carthusians." "There 
 should be an elaboratory with a repository for rarities and things of na- 
 ture, an aviary, dove house, physick garden, of four hundred pounds 
 running expenses, one hundred forty-five pounds to be employed for 
 books, instruments, drugs and trials. Every person of the society shall 
 
I20 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 By 1665 so many men of the Oxford group moved dLWdiy,/ 
 that Stahl, for want of disciples, left for London to assume 
 the position of operator of the Royal Society.^ Indeed J 
 ever since 1658 manyof the Oxford body had_i£tlinaeA to 
 London^nieeting now at lectures in Greshjun College. 
 This institution is so intimately connected with the early 
 history of the English society that a few words about it 
 must be said here. S ir- Gresham i n his will (1575) had? 
 left valuable property tothe citizens of London to provide ' 
 them with a college in his former mansion. There seven\ 
 professors were to live in commodious apartments, andi 
 were to deliver a daily lecture to citizens of London on( < 
 divinity, astronomy, music, geometry, law, physics and j 
 rhetoric — a remarkable instance indeed, of interest in^the I 
 spread of science, aiid in an attempt to reach the unlettered j 
 
 render public account of his studies weekly if thought fit, and especially 
 shall be recommended the promotion of experimential knowledge as 
 the principal end of the institution." It is thus a scientific kind of 
 monastery to which Evelyn wants to retire with " such a person as Mr. 
 Boyle, who is alone a society of all that were desirable to a consummate 
 felicity." 
 
 'Clark, op. cit., i, p. ago. 
 
 'Weld, op. cit., i, p. 35. This Oxford society under the name of the 
 ' ' Oxford Philosophical Society ' ' continued to exist until 1690, and was 
 in correspondence and co-operation with the London Royal Society. 
 It tried to enlist the learned bodies in the cause of science. For in- 
 stance, in a letter to the heads of universities, they wrote (quoted by 
 Weld): " We would by no means be thought to slight or undervalue 
 the philosophy of Aristotle . . but we do not think (nor did he think) 
 that he had so exhausted the stock of knowledge that there would be 
 nothing left for inquiry of after times, as neither we of this age hope to 
 find out so much but that there will be much left for those that come 
 after us." The letter proceeds earnestly to request the assistance of 
 members of colleges, etc., towards the great work of advancing scien- 
 tific knowledge. The fact that the society ceased in 1690 is the best 
 comment on the little success their efforts met with. (See below, 
 Ch. VIII.) 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 121 
 
 people/ Two of the men of the Oxford societ^^_Rpoke 
 a nd Wr en, had been appointed to Gresimmj>roiessorships. 
 It was at their lectures that many of the previous Oxford 
 group, now residents of London, met. Sprat reports: 
 " Here joined with them several eminent persons, Lord 
 Brouncker, Lord Brereton, Sir Paul Neil, Mr. John Evelyn, 
 Mr. Henshaw, Dr. Slingsby, Dr. Timothy Clark, Dr. Ent, 
 Mr. Ball, Mr. Hill, Dr. Crone and divers other gentlemen 
 whose inclination lay in the same way." ^ 
 
 We are now close_to_the body that was Jo be incorporated 
 as the Royal Society, and therefore naturally ask what 
 manneFoTmen these were. Lord Brouncker (1620-1684)* 
 had translated Descartes' Musical Compendium; his main 
 interest lay in mathematics, to which he contributed the 
 theory of continued fractions and the quadrature of the 
 hyperbola ; * he, with Evelyn, often discussed scientific ques- 
 tions with Charles II. 
 
 Evelyn was the well-known diarist ; Henshaw,° a lawyer 
 and the King's under-secretary, was interested in chemical 
 matters ; Mr. Ball ^ was an astronomer ; Dr. Clarke ^ a 
 physician, who conducted some dissection before Charles II 
 md encouraged the royal interest in this direction. Mr. 
 Hill * was a business man, who eventually became com- 
 nissioner of trade.'' 
 
 These me etings a t Gresham Collegejwere rudely__inter- 
 rtipted, when the building was converted into barracks for 
 the soldiers, but with the " wonderful pacifick year " 
 (1660) of the Restoration, they were revived and attended 
 by anjncreased number, and on Novemb er 28, i666_those in 
 
 •Weld, op. cit., i, pp. 80 sqq. 'Sprat, op. cit., p. 57. 
 
 'Aubrey, John, op. cit., i, p. 129. 
 
 * Cantor, op. cit., iii, pp. 5S sqq. 
 
 5 National Biography. Sub verbo. ' See above Gh. II. 
 
 ' About Lord Brereton (1631-1680) and Paul Neil I find nothing. 
 
122 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 attg ndance co nstituted themselves into a definite association. 
 With an„.account of this event the first Journal book of_the 
 Royal Societj;^opens. 
 
 Memorandum November 28, 1660. These persons follow- 
 ing, according to the usual custom of most of them, met to- 
 gether at Gresham College, to hear Mr. Wren's lecture.^ And 
 after the lecture was ended they did according to usual 
 manner withdraw for mutual converse. Where amongst other\ 
 matters that were discoursed of, something was offered about 
 a design of fo unding a college for the promoting of Physico- 
 mathematical Experimental Learning; and because they had 
 
 ^the'seTrequent occasions of rheetihg with one another, it was 
 
 'proposed that some course might be thought of, to improve this 
 meeting to a more regular way of debating things, and ac- 
 cording to the manner in other countrys where there were 
 voluntary associations of men in academies_f or the advance- 
 ment or"vanous parts of learning, so they might do some- 
 
 ] thing answerable here for the promotion of experimental 
 
 'philosc^hy.^ 
 
 They agreed to meet Wednesday at Mr. Rooke's chamber . 
 
 at Gresham College, and in vacation at Mr. Ball's chamber. 
 
 Dr. Wilkins was appointed chairman, and a list of forty-one 
 
 persons, " judged willing and fit to join with them in their 
 
 design " was drawn up. 
 / On the Wednesday following the opening entry of the 
 
 journal-book, Sir__Robert Moray, who was called the " soul 
 tof the meetings " and represented the connecting link be- 
 'tween the King and the scientists, brought, word that the 
 
 King approved, of _ their design^ and from thenceforth the 
 /journal reports weekly meetings. December 5, 1660, a 
 
 ' Viz., The Lord Brouncker, Mr. Boyle, Mr. Bruce, Sir Robert 
 Moray, Sir Paul Neile, Dr. Wilkins, Dr. Goddard, Dr. Petty, Mr. 
 Ball, Mr. Rooke, Mr. Wren, Mr. Hill. 
 
 2 Weld, op. cit., i, p. 65. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 123 
 
 formal agreement was signed_bxJhe..,Qngin2J.memb^ 
 seventy-three_others, " to consdt and debals^once sj 
 
 pronibting of experimental learning." _. Informal rules were 
 drawn~upr'^ GresKam_Cpllege after some^debate_was de- 
 signated as a permanent place of meetings. The young 
 societyTiacT'not met 'inany'"m6nths before a poem was 
 written, probably by William Glanvill: In praise of the 
 choice company of Philosophers and Witts who meet Wed- 
 nesdays weekly at Gresham College." 
 
 At Gresham College a learned nott 
 Unparalleled designs have layed 
 
 To make themselves a corporation 
 And know all things by demonstration. 
 
 These are not men of common mould, 
 They covet fame but condemn gold. 
 
 The College Gresham shall hereafter 
 Be the whole world's University, 
 
 Oxford and Cambridge are our laughter; 
 Their learning is but pedantry. 
 These new Collegiates do assure us 
 ''Aristotle's an ass to Epicurus. W. G.'' 
 
 / Th^ ^rmative period of tHe society /* dates from Novem- 
 ber 28, 1660 , to July 15, 1 662, when the royal charter was 
 /issued, for the lines were then laid out along which its 
 Mjjture work proceeded. The question of greatest interest, 
 how was experimentation really carried on? is hard to an- 
 swer. The Gresham professors formed as it were a " com-V 
 mittee on experiment ", and " every man of the company 
 
 ' The number of members was restricted to fifty-five, but any baron, ' 
 any Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, public professors of 
 mathematics, physics, and natural philosophy could join. There was 
 as yet no curator — merely a president, treasurer, register, amanuensis 
 (with a salary of forty pounds) and operator (with a salary of four 
 pounds) ; members were to sit with the registrar taking notes. 
 
 '^ Weld, op. cit., foot-note, i, p. 79. 
 
124 ^^^ ^'^^^ ^^ ^^^ SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 'was desired to bring in such experiment as he shall think 
 most fit for advancement of the general design of the com- 
 pany." We hear ^ that Mr. Boyle showed his experiment 
 of the air; Dr. Clark, the injection of liquid into the veins 
 of animals. So we know at least of two types of experi- 
 ments of the greatest importance. As t o obtaining a labo r- 
 atory, a committee was formed to consider all sorts of tools, 
 instruments and " glasses for perspectives " for the society.' 
 As to the svstematic preparation for the rneetmgs it is re- 
 corded that when Mr. Boyle presented his book concerning 
 glass tubes, it ^was ordered that ea c h member have one i n 
 order to disco urse on it at the n ext meeting. 
 ' Apart from laboratory work, another line of investigation 
 was at once started, namely to procure authentic informa- 
 tion on the natural, history and physical condition of foreign 
 countries, respecting which great ignorance prevailed.' 
 In terest in co m merce a nd trade was evinced. ' A Philoso- 
 phy, i. e., History of Shipping and Clothing and Dying, was 
 allotted to Sii^vPetty, subjects closely related to his past 
 business interests." ^he rule that members should present 
 their books to the society was establishedTl Formal cor- 
 
 1 Weld, ap. cit., passim, i, pp. 95 sqq. 
 
 ' " An Essay furnace was ordered to be built and accurate beam 
 [scale] provided for the use of the society." Mr. Boyle presented the 
 company with an air pump. 
 
 ^ Boyle and Brouncker drew up twenty-two " questions " to send to 
 Teneriff, e. g., " Try the mercury experiment at the top and several 
 other ascents of the mountain. Take by instrument (with what exact- 
 ness may be) the true altitude of every place where experiment is 
 made. Observe the temperature of the air by a weather glass, and as 
 to moisture and dryness with a hydroscope. . . Try by an hour glass 
 whether a pendulum clock goeth faster or slower on top of the hill 
 than below." The East India Company agent was given a series of 
 questions with the same intent. Weld, op. cit., i, p. 117; also Sprat, op. 
 cit., pp. 200 sqq., for answers to inquiries about Teneriflf. 
 
 * See above Ch. II. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 1 25 
 
 respondence with foreign learned bodies was opened, for 
 instance, with the Duke Leopold of the Accademia del Ci- 
 mento, and with the group at Montmort's house soon to be 
 established as the Academie des Sciences.^ 
 
 Th e various papers submitted d uring this _Year_show a 
 somewhat astonishing absence of criticism. We must not 
 forget that, after all, the majority of the members were of 
 average^^^nSiJali^T" President Sir Robert Moray handed 
 in a paper on Barnacles reporting that when he was in 
 the western island of Scotland, he saw a multitude of little 
 shells adhering to trees, having within them little perfectly 
 shaped birds ; yet he never saw any of the birds alive. There 
 were papers on the production of young vipers from the 
 powdered liver and lungs of vipers, and on magnetic and 
 sympathetic cures.^ These give the best evidence of how 
 much a scientific society was needed. 
 
 I The King, who had always — presumably through Sir 
 Robert Moray — shown great interest in the work of the 
 savants) and sent them " rarities," on July 15, 1662, es- 
 tablished them as a_RQXal_SQdsty_by.-a .dharter;::-called by 
 some the only wise act of Charles II. The preamble of 
 the charter reads as follows : 
 
 And whereas we are informed that a competent number of 
 persons of eminent learning, ingenuity and honour, concording 
 in their inclinations and studies towards this employment, have 
 for some time accustomed themselves to meet weekly and 
 orderly to confer about the hidden causes of things, with a 
 design to establish certain and correct uncertain theories in 
 philosophy, and by their labour in the disquisition of nature 
 to prove themselves real benefactors to mankind ; and that they 
 have already made a considerable progress by divers useful 
 and remarkable discoveries, inventions and experiments in the 
 improvement of Mathematics, Mechanics, Astronomy, Naviga- 
 
 1 See below, ch. v. 
 
 2 Weld, op. cit., i, pp. 107 sqq. 
 
126 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 tion, Physics and Chemistry, we have determined to^rant our 
 Rojral^favor, patronage and_all due encpuragement toJ:his il- 
 lustrious assembly, and so_ beneficial^.ajid laudable an enter- 
 ^prise.^ 
 
 The Charter opened with the following interesting state- 
 ment: 
 
 <VVe have long and fully resoly,ed. with p^g^Are^ 
 not only the boundaries^ of_Empire_ but al^o ithe , y ery arts and 
 sciencesXTlierefore we look with favor upon all forms of 
 "learning, but with particular grace we encourage philosophical 
 studies, especially^ those^vvJiich by actua te ex periments attempt 
 -either to shape out a new philosophy or to perfect the old. 
 In order therefore that such studies which have not hitherto 
 been sufficiently brilliant in any part of the world may shine 
 conspicuously amongst our people andthat^t_ length the whole 
 WDxld__af.,Jetters rnay_ always _recognize_us_ not only as the 
 Defender of the Faith, but^also as the universal lover and 
 patrQJ3ja.f.^ery, Wad of truth . . . Itnpw ye thatjve . . . have 
 ordained . . . thicre shall be a society consisting of a President, 
 Council and Fellows, which shall be called and named The 
 Royal Society . . . The Council shall consist of twenty-onel 
 persons, of whom we will the President to be always one . . J 
 And that all and singular other persons who within one month 
 . . . shall be received and admitted by the President and Coun- 
 cil .. . shall be called and named FellowsoftheRoYal^ So- 
 cietyj whom, the more eminently they are distinguished for 
 the study of every kind of learning and good letters, the more 
 ardently they desire to promote the honour, studies and ad- 
 vantage of this society . . . the more we wish them to be 
 especially deemed fitting and worthy of being admitted into the 
 number of Fellows of the same society.- 
 
 The first president and council were appointed by the 
 
 ■ '. -'-^ 
 1 Weld, op. cit., i, p. 121. 
 ^Record of the Royal Society, 1901, pp. 31 sqq. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 1 27 
 
 King. The , President w as Lord Brouncker; the Council : 
 Robert Moray, Robert Boyle, William Brereton, Kenelm 
 Digby, Paul Neile, Henry Slingesby, William Petty, Pro- 
 fessor John Wallis, Dr. Timothy Clark, Professor John 
 Wilkins, Dr. George Ent, William Aerskin, Dr. Jonathan 
 Goddard, Dr. Christopher Wren, Saville, William Ball, 
 Mathew Wren, Evelyn, Thomas Henshaw, Dudley Palmer, 
 and Henry Oldenburg. The society was to have a treas- 
 Jirer£^the first appointee being William Ball, and_jbwo sec- 
 retarigs, — these posts being assigned to Wilkins and Olden^ 
 burg.^ They were to meet in the college or any public 
 place or hall in London, or within ten miles and make laws, 
 statutes, and ordinances relating to the affairs of the so- 
 Lcjety.^ They could appoint printers and engravers, andV 
 obtained the right to demand, receive and anatomize bodies 
 of executed criminals, the same as the College of Physicians 
 and Corporation of Surgeons in London.'' And further^ 
 the Charter continued : " we have given . . . that they ■ ■ • I 
 e njoy mutual in'felligence and .k .nQwkd£e.-„withT~~r tJ^^'^'C 
 (ffers and foreigners . . . without any molestation, inter- 1 
 ■^^rt^iHoiT'OT^dTsturbance . . . provided (this be) in matters ] 
 ^br things philosophical, mathematical and mechanical." ^J 
 That the possibility of the function of teaching was consid- 
 
 ^ Oldenburg was destined to accomplish invaluable work for the 
 society. A native of Bremen, professor at the University of Dorpat, 
 he was sent by the Council of Bremen to Cromwell; later he went 
 with pupils to Oxford, where he stayed until 1657. As Boyle was the 
 uncle of the pupils, Oldenburg early came in contact with this scien- 
 tist, and devoted himself to experimental science. He combined in- 
 terest in science with literary ability and unusual command of Latin, 
 and he translated some of Boyle's and Steno's works into Latin. 
 {National Biography. Sub verba. Birch, History of the Royal So- 
 ciety, iii. p. 352.) 
 
 ' The Record of the Royal Society, 1901, p. 40. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 41. 
 
128 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 ered ^is evident from the fact that they obtained a Ijcense 
 
 Thus, in a few years the " Tnvisihle. College" of Boyle 
 was rnrorporated hy roy^] rhartpr, and from a few philo- ^ 
 sophers and lovers of science, meeting here and there as ij 
 times permitted, there grew a society that soon acquired 
 I a stability which two and a half centuries have not 
 V^weakened.' 
 
 / The charter made no financial provision whatsoever.^ 
 This was the great difference between the English ajad the 
 French society, and indeed, the Accademia del Cimento. 
 While these were in good financial condition, the Royal So- 
 j ciety was for years in a continuous pecuniary struggle 
 I which more than once threatened its very existence.* And 
 ' yet the fact of its incorporation was a great step in ad- 
 vance, as the royal sanction in the eyes of the world trans- 
 formed the workers from the type popularly known as 
 " cranks," into respected investigators of new lines of 
 truth. 
 
 The council proceeded immediately to the appointment of 
 ninety-six Fellows of whom the following are the best 
 known: Isaac Barrow, Theodore Haak, Robert Hooke, 
 Bishop Sprat, John Wallis, Willoughby, John Winthrop, 
 and Christopher Wren.° 
 
 '■ The Record of the Royal Society, igoi, p. 42. 
 
 2 Weld, op. cit., i, p. 128. 
 
 ^Ibid., i, p. 130. It must be mentioned that the King assigned to 
 the society certain claims in Irish lands on which, however, it proved" 
 impossible to realize. 
 
 * Weld, op. cit., i, 128. 
 
 ^ Record of the Royal Society, 1901, pp. 227 sqq. The following 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 
 
 129 
 
 The statutes_of J]ie_socie^ were drawn up more than a 
 year later. Within this time fell the important appoint- 
 ment of Robert Hooke as curator of the society. He had 
 as a boy been prevented from study by headaches, and left 
 to himself, had sought diversion in mechanical toys. In 
 1653, he entered Oxford where his mechanical skill attracted 
 wide notice, for example, he showed the " artifices of 
 flying " to John Wilkins. He studied astronomy with Seth 
 Ward, and assisted Willis in chemistry, who in turn recom- 
 mended him to Boyle. Hooke instructed Boyle in Euclid, 
 smd it "^S^^^ act of generosity on Boyle's part to re- 
 Imquish'Hboke's services to the society. His duty as cura- 
 tor was " to furnish the society every day they met with 
 three or four considerable experiments, expecting no re- 
 compense till the society get a stock enabling them to give 
 it." The statutes which the society adopted in 1663 seem, 
 
 table shows the number of new members added to the society in the 
 
 succeeding years : 
 
 1663—33 1676— 9 i68cH- 4 
 
 1664 — 30 i677' — 12 1690 — I 
 
 166s — 14 1678 — ^12 i6gi — 5 
 
 1666 — 16 1679 — 12 1692^ — 12 
 
 1667 — 33 1680 — 6 1693 — 8 
 
 1668 — ^24 1681 — ^26 1694 — 3 
 
 1669 — s 1682 — 9 169s — 9 
 
 1670 — 4 1683 — 8 1696 — 18 
 
 1671 — S 1684 — 9 1697 — ^12 
 
 1672 — 4 1685 — 8 1698 — ^23 
 1673—14 1686— s^ , 1699— 3 
 
 1674 — 6 1687^ 4 U ^ 1700— 7 
 
 1675— 5 1688— 7 
 
 The dates of admission of the more prominent members added from 
 time to time are the following, according to The Record of the Royal 
 Society, 1901 : 1663, Huygens, Bathurst, Sir John Petty, Willis ; 1664, 
 Hevelius, Glanvill, Sam. Pepy's, Prince Rupert; 1666, Adrian Auzout; 
 1667, Richard Lower, John Collins, 'Ray; 1668, Malpighi; 1671, Grew, 
 Newton; 1672, Cassini; 1673, Leibnitz; 1676, Flamsteed; 1678, Halley; 
 1679, Leuwenhoeck; 1680, Papin; 1691, Count Marsigli; i6g6, Viviani; 
 1698, Geoffrey; 1699, Menkenius; 1700, Sydenham. 
 
I30 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 in great part, his work. A few extracts from them ^ wilL 
 give a clear idea of the society's aim andjnetilQdsj 
 
 The business of the society in ordinary meetings shall be 
 order, take account, consider and discourse of philosophical 
 experiments and observations; to read, hear and discourse 
 upon letters, reports and other papers containing philosophical 
 matters; as also to view and discourse upon rarities of nature 
 and art ; and thereupon to consider what may be deduced from 
 them or any of them, and how far they or any of them may 
 be improved for use or discovery.^ 
 
 Two or more curators shall be appointed for every experi- 
 ment or natural observation, that _canno t conve niently be per- 
 formed in the presence of the society, which curators . . . 
 shall".", ".meet together at "time and place . . . agreed ... to 
 make the experiment or observation; and also shall jointly i 
 draw up a report of the matter in every such experiment and 
 observation . . .' 
 
 In all reports of experiments to be brought to the society, 
 the matter of fa ct shall be barely stated without any prefac es, 
 apjglogies, and_£hetorical flourishes; and entered so in the 
 Register book by order of the society, and if any Fellow shall 
 think fit to suggest any conjecture concerning the causes of 
 the phenomena in such experiment, the same shall be done 
 apart ; and so entered into the register book.* 
 
 ^ Weld, op. cit., ii, pp 524 sqq. (to be found in full). 
 ' Ibid., iv. Section V. 
 
 • Ibid., V, Section III. 
 
 * Ibid., V, Section IV. Compare with the fuller statement quoted in 
 Weld, i, pp. 146 sqq., taken from the manuscript volume of Hooke's 
 papers, written in 1663 : 
 
 I " The business and design of the Royal Society is — 
 ^ " To improve the knowledge of naturall things, and all useful Arts, 
 Manufactures, Mechanick practices, Engynes and Inventions by Ex- 
 periments — (not meddling with Divinity, Metaphysics, Moralls, Poli- 
 ticks, Grammar, Rhetorick, or Logick). 
 
 " To attempt the recovering of such allowable arts and inventions as 
 are lost. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 131 
 
 The secretary shall have charge of the Charter book, Statute 
 book, Journal book, Letter book ^ and Register book, 
 wherein shall be fairly written all such observations, his- 
 
 I tories and discourses of natural and artificial things — as 
 also all such philosophical experiments, together with par- 
 ticular accounts of their processes as shall be ordered to 
 
 I be entered therein." " The office of the Curator ^ was thus 
 established : 
 
 " To examine all systems, theories, principles, hypotheses, elements, 
 histories, and experiments of things naturall, mathematical!, and me- 
 chanicall, invented, recorded or practiced, by any considerable author 
 ancient or modern. In order to the compiling of a complete system 
 of solid philosophy for explicating all phenomena produced by nature 
 or art, and recording a rationall account of the causes of things. 
 
 " In the mean time this Society will not own any hypothesis, sys- 
 tem, or doctrine of the principles of naturall philosophy, proposed or 
 mentioned by any philosopher ancient or modern, nor the explication 
 of any phenomena whose recourse must be had to originall causes 
 (as not being explicable by heat, cold, weight, figure, and the like, as 
 effects produced thereby) : nor dogmatically define, nor fix axioms of 
 scientificall things, but will question and canvass all opinions, adopt- 
 ing nor adhering to none, till by mature debate and clear arguments, 
 chiefly such as are deduced from legitimate experiments, the truth of 
 such experiments be demonstrated invincibly. 
 
 " And till there be a sufficient collection made of experiments, his- 
 tories, and observations, there are no debates to be held at the weekly 
 meetings of the Society, concerning any hypothesis or principal of 
 philosophy, nor any discourses made for explicating any phenomena, 
 except by speciall appointment of the Society or allowance of the 
 President. But the time of the assembly is to be employed in pro- 
 posing and making experiments, discoursing of the truth, manner, 
 grounds and use thereof, reading and discoursing upon letters, reports 
 and other papers concerning philosophical! and mechanicall matters, 
 viewing and discoursing of curiousities of nature and art, and doing 
 such other things as the Council or the President shall appoint." 
 
 ' Statutes, Ch. X, Sec. I. 
 
 ' Ibid., Ch. XI, Sec. I. 
 
 3 The office of curator was given to Robert Hooke, first temporarily, 
 then " for perpetuity," with a salary of thirty pounds, and apartments 
 in Gresham College assigned as his residence. 
 
132 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 jThe employment and business of the curator shall be to take 
 /care of the managing of all experiments and observations ap- 
 pointed — examining of science, arts, ,inventions; bringing in 
 histories of natural and artificial things. Every . . . curator 
 . . . shall be . . . knowing in philosophy and mathematical 
 learning, addicted to and well Versed in observations, inquiries 
 and experiments concerning natural and artificial things. 
 Every . . . curator . . . shall be elected first for one year on 
 probation and at the end ... for perpetuality.^ 
 
 Offices of Clerk, Printer, and of Operators of the society 
 were also established.^ 
 
 /^ And now that we have seen how the society was estab-/ 
 I lished with its charter and statutes, let us commence to study 
 somewhat closely thQse_jeatures__whereby_Jt helped _to_ad- 
 V vance the progress of experirn«T^taJ.jJtiidi£S_jlurmg_the^ 
 deca3es"6nis"Cor^6iSe existen'ce;f 
 
 •J Firstas to the persanne]__of the Fellows : there were four- 
 teen noblemen, barons and knights, eighteen esquires, eigh- 
 teen physicians, five doctors of divinity, two bishops " for 
 
 1 Statutes, Ch. XI, Sees. II, III, and VIII. 
 
 2 Clark, Andrew, op. cit., i, p. 290. It is of some interest that the 
 position of opferator was for years filled by Peter Stahl, the instructor 
 of chemistry of the "Invisible College" 
 
 * The society held its meetings at Gresham College regularly until 
 interrupted (from June, 1665, to February, 1666), first by the Great 
 Plague, during which period they met at Boyle's in Oxford occasion- 
 ally; and again in September, 1666, by the Great Fire. After this 
 latter catastrophe the quarters at Gresham College were needed to 
 accommodate citizens. Hence the society met (1666-1673) at Lord] 
 Howard's Arundel House. It is a sign of their prominence that in 
 1673 a committee of aldermen, magistrates and Gresham professors, 
 waited on them asking them to return to Gresham College. The invi- 
 tation was accepted, in view of the fact that the curator's quarters were 
 there, and all apparatus on hand. (Weld, op. cit., i, pp. 182 sqq. ; 
 i, p. 198.) 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 133 
 
 prevention of those panick, causeless terrors "/ thirty- 
 eight other members.^ We have here an association! y 
 not of scholars and_l^rned nien pre-eminently, but of-amar|' 
 teurs. interested in experimental _scieace,- a fact in which 
 Sprat revels/ In4gedL.appeal was speciall y m adg..tQ. Jhe 
 a mateur , who_ could not give much of his time. 
 
 They (the Royal Society) require not the whole time of any 
 of their members, except only of their curators. Fj:QiaJ;he 
 resL.ihey^expect no more but what their business, nay, even 
 their very recreation can~'spare. It is'~continuance and per- 
 petuity of such philosophical labors to which they "trust.* * ' 
 
 V The appeaJis specially made t o the man w ithout university 
 learningT Sprat wrote, 
 
 It suffices if many be plain, diligent and laborious observers 
 who though they_bring_not much knowledge^ yet bri ng tb ejp- 
 llMds_an^LeyesJiicQaU£ted. . . . Men did generally think nla 
 man was fit to meddle in matters of consequence but he that / 
 had bred himself up in a long course of discipline for that 
 purpose. . . . Experience . . . tensjjs_j[reaj:er_ things are_ pro- 
 du£ed_Jjy„free.:SKay;_thanJhe_form "^ 
 
 ^Q^^^^IS^^?:^.^^lJXyi^S~J!^i^i^.X9.X]^^ advantage of the 
 Ro]^_Society that many merchanJtsjj3^Ltel§iriess mer^jyere 
 
 1 Glanvill, op. cit., Preface. 
 
 ' Record of the Royal Society, 1901, p. 228. 
 
 3 Sprat, op. cit., p. 71. " We find noble rarities to be every day given 
 in, not only by the hands of the learned, but from shops of mechanics, 
 voyagers of merchants, ploughs of husbandmen, gardens of gentle- 
 men." 
 
 * Ihid., p. 333. Sprat exults that every class of men has joined 
 {ibid., p. 63). "They have freely admitted men of different religions, 
 countries and professions of life." 
 
 Ibid., p. 130. " Physicians contribute, though they have had their 
 own college 150 years; statesmen, soldiers and churchmen." 
 
 = Sprat, op. cit., pp. 72 sq. 
 
134 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 joining its ranks,^ also because thereby thejiractical advant- 
 
 ageoFfinanciai heTplnlghFa^e7«^i^^2?Sv^^ 
 
 Turning to a stiir more essential point — how the society 
 conducted its investigations, we find that they did not have 
 as yet a laboratory in the proper sense of the word. The 
 curator's (Robert Hooke's) rooms in Gresham College were 
 the nearest approach to it. The c rea.t,ion of a laboratory 
 
 anr| rif^signing- nf apparatus was n£-COH-i:se-the-&i:stcare of 
 
 thesoeifity.^ But there were great difficulties in the way, as 
 is evident from Hooke's letter to Boyle : 
 
 We are now undertaking several good things, as the collect- 
 ing a repository, the setting up a chemical laboratory, a me- 
 chanical operatory, an astronomical observatory, and an optick 
 chamber ; i iut the paucity of the undertakers is such, th at it , 
 must needs stick._unles.s_inQre com e, in, and pu t their shoulders 
 to the work. We know. Sir, you can and will do much to ad- 
 vance these,att£Spts7 — — 
 
 ' Hooke, Robert, op. cit. Preface. " Many of their number are men 
 of traffic which is a good omen that their attempts will bring philoso- 
 phy from words to action, seeing that men of business have had such 
 great share in the first foundation." 
 
 " Several merchants, men who act in earnest, have adventured con- 
 siderable sums of money to put in practice what some of our members 
 have contrived." 
 
 ' Weld, op. cit; i, p. 185. Hooke wrote to Boyle in 1666 : "... I de- 
 sign very speedily to make an operatory, which I design to furnish 
 with instruments and engines of all kinds,' for making examination 
 of the nature of bodies optical, chemical, mechanical. . . I am. 
 now making a collection of natural rarities." 
 
 I quote two instances I find of orders for and description of appar- 
 atus : " The Operator is called upon to have ready cylinders of mer- 
 cury for observing the ascent and descent thereof, according to var- 
 ious constitutions of air." Birch, History of the Royal Society, i, p. 
 304. And again, Sir Robert Moray described a kind of furnace which 
 puts air into a flame by pipes, being outwardly heated and blown by 
 bellows; by which means some persons pretend to melt ore into 
 water.'' Ibid., i, p. 144. 
 
 ' Weld, op. cit., i, p. 186. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 135 
 
 A nd so insuffic ignt^ was^the mnnfty to piirchpgp gn^b ph'^"- ' 
 soghical apparatus as was required that the society was 
 frequently under the necessity of soliciting Boyle to lend his 
 personal apparatus for experiments. 
 / Sprat ^ gives an e numeration of the S ociety's instru- 
 
 , ments — " those new ones which they themselves or some of 
 
 ^ their members have invented or advanced." 
 
 Instrument for finding a second of time by the sun. 
 
 Three several quadrants. New instrument for taking angles 
 by reflection. 
 
 New kind of back-staff for taking altitude of the sun. 
 
 Hoop of all fixed stars in the Zodiac. 
 
 Copernican sphere. 
 
 Instruments for keeping time exactly . . . with pendulums 
 and without. 
 
 A universal standard or measure of magnitudes by help of 
 pendulum. 
 
 New pendulum clock. 
 
 Pendulum clock showing equation of time. 
 
 Three new ways of pendulums for clocks. 
 
 Pendulum watches. 
 
 Instruments for compressing and rarifying air; wheel 
 barometer. 
 
 New kind of scales to examine gravity; to see whether the 
 attraction of the earth be no greater in some parts of the 
 earth than in others. 
 
 Exact scales for magnetical experiments. 
 
 Several accurate beams. 
 
 Magnetical instruments. 
 
 New kinds of levels. 
 
 New Augar for boring. 
 
 New instrument for fetching any substance from bottom 
 of sea. 
 
 New bucket. 
 
 Two new ways of sounding the depths of the sea. 
 
 Instruments for finding velocity of swimming bodies. 
 
 Instrument of great height with glass windows, to be filled 
 with water for examining velocity of bodies ... by their 
 descent. 
 
 Instrument for measuring and dividing time of their de- 
 scent, serving for examining swiftness of bodies descending. 
 
 ' Sprat, op. cit., pp. 246 sqq. 
 
136 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES i 
 
 Bell for diving. 
 
 Instruments for diver. 
 
 New spectacles for diver. 
 
 New way of conveying water to diver. 
 
 Instrument for measuring swiftness of wind and for raising 
 continual stream of water. 
 
 Several thermometers : one for examining all degrees of 
 heat in flames and fires made of several substances. 
 
 New standard for cold. 
 
 Instrument for planting corn. 
 
 Four sorts of hygroscopes. 
 
 Several kinds of ways to examine water. 
 
 Several engines for finding and determining the force of 
 gun powder. 
 
 Instrument for receiving and preserving the force of gun 
 powder so as to make it applicable for performing of any 
 motion desired. 
 
 Several instruments for examining recoiling ... of guns. 
 
 Instruments to improve hearing. 
 
 Models of chariots. 
 
 Chariot-way-wiser, measuring length of way of chariot.^ 
 
 Instrument for making screws. 
 
 Way of preserving impression of seal. 
 
 Instrument for grinding optic glasses ; double telescope, sev- 
 eral telescopes of divers length. [Sprat here remarks that the 
 English have great advantage of late years through their art 
 of making glass finer and more serviceable for microscopes and 
 telescopes than that of Venice.] 
 
 Grew, in his book Musaeium Regalis, a Catalogue and 
 Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities belonging 
 to the Royal Society and preserved at Gresham College, 
 published in 1686, enumerated among the society's instru- 
 ments in that year the following : 
 
 Air pump (Boyle) ; condensing engine (one of brass and of 
 glass) ; weather clock (Wren and Hooke) ; instrument to' meas- 
 ure quantity of rain (Wren) ; lamp furnace (Hooke) ; semi- 
 cylindric lamp (Hooke) ; model of eye, burning glass, hollow 
 glass (Wilkins) ; one microscope- that magnifies one hundred 
 
 ' Such a device is described by Vitruvius. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 1 37 
 
 diameters, lesser microscope, three instruments to help hearing 
 (Wilkins) ; hydrostatic scales, anatomic instruments, reflecting 
 telescope (Newton) ; arithmetic instrument (Hooke) way- 
 wiser (Wilkins) ; model of a two-bottomed ship (Sir Petty) ; 
 dipping needles, canoe, guns.^ 
 
 Valuable instruments were presented to the society by their7 1/ 
 inventors as, for example, Newton's telescope, HuygensT 
 lens, and Papin's boiler. 
 
 /^Closely connected with the question of the laboratory was 
 I that of the acquisition of a collection of raritie s, so im- 
 \portant to the seventeenth century. The society started 
 such a rarity cabinet with the gift of Daniel Colwall, and 
 Grew gives a detailed account ^ of the objects in the pos- 
 session of the society, which would correspond to the ana- 
 tomical, zoological and botanical collections of to-day. 
 These were considerable for the time, but were compara- 
 ! lively on a much lower level than the instruments. The 
 ' r Musaeum " contained, indeed, many a queer specimen, if 
 we are to trust the comment of as learned a man as Maga- 
 lotti : 
 
 Amongst these curiosities, the most remarkable are : an 
 ostrich whose young were always born alive; an herb which 
 grew in the stomach of a thrush; and the skin of a moor, 
 tanned, with the beard and hair white; but more worthy of 
 observation than all the rest, is a clock, whose movements are 
 derived from the vicinity of a loadstone, and it is so adjusted 
 as to discover the distance of countries at sea by the longitude.' 
 
 Having thus examined the " inventory " of the Royal 
 Society, let us turn to their workjtself. — — — -^ ^ 
 
 As to its organization, we find an interesting account 
 by Sprat whic'h~sff6wTjhat_n3uch _acto 
 
 ' Grew, op. cit., pt. iv, pp. 351 sqq. 
 
 2 Grew, op. cit. 
 
 8 Weld, op. cit., i, p. 2ig. 
 
\ 
 
 138 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Iwas don e at the homes of th e Fellows. and,_„thrgws 
 'light on the allotment_of„ topics, and preliminary pre- 
 parations before the,_ .5tage~,-.oi,.„.,exp.erimentatioJi was 
 
 reached.^ The society as a whole discussed "without^ rigor^ 
 /or criticism " the problern^orTEandTand what could be found (I 
 about IT in booftsf then one would perform the experiment 
 privateTy'ariH bring "the history of the trial to the society." * 
 Experimental work along physiological and anatomical lines 
 was done in the private laboratories of members — dissec- 
 tions, perhaps, at the Royal College of Physicians, ^t 
 every me eting the curator , Robert Hooke, exhibite{i_experi- 
 ments. In a ddition to the intrinsic interest of what was 
 shown, it was designed, accordmgToThomson,* to put the 
 spectatp£s^"on''tKe T'rgfir"wa)r6TlhTestigatioir^^ to^ teach 
 them how to draw legitimate~c6ii3usions from their own 
 o1)servations. But he~"ventures the criticism that " this 
 seems" not a good way, as few discoveries were made during 
 exhibitions, even when the experimenters were successful 
 in private labors." 
 
 ' " Men who selected their own topics were allowed to experiment 
 privately, and expenses were allowed from the common stock; or the 
 society made distribution, and deputed whom it saw fit for the experi- 
 ment ; they either allotted the same work to several men, or else 
 joined them into a committee" (Sprat, op. cit., p. 84) "The usual 
 
 course was, when they appointed the trial, to propose one week some 
 particular experiment to be prosecuted next and to debate beforehand 
 concerning all things that might conduce to better carrying on." 
 Ibid., p. 9S. Another glimpse of the society at work is given in Birch's 
 History of the Royal Society, iii, p. 346. " November ist, 1677, there 
 were produced a great many exceedingly small and thin pipes of glass 
 of various sizes, some ten times, others a tenth as big as a hair, to 
 test Leiiwenhoeck's experiments." When micro-organisms were not 
 found, it was decided to get a better microscope. November 8, 1677, 
 the better microscope was obtained, yet the animals in the pepper 
 water were not seen. December 6, 1677, they were seen. 
 
 ' Sprat, op: cit., p. 95. "The best experimenters are least versed in 
 books." 
 *Ibid., p. 97- * Thomson, History of the Royal Society, i, p. 6. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 
 
 139 
 
 The work itself was so wide in scope that it defies classi- 
 fication. Sprat (1667) naively divided it into eleven types : 
 work dealing with (i) fire; (2) atmosphere, sound, breath- 
 ing, experiments with rarifying engine; (3) water; (4) 
 metals and stones; (5) vegetables; (6) medical matters; 
 (7) qualities sensible as to heat; (8) other qualities, rari- 
 ties; (9) light, sound, color; (10) motion; (11) matters 
 chemical, mechanical, optical.^ But as a matter of fac^ 
 most experiments, new and old, that could.Jb£-xiQne_a?.£re 
 performed by tlie^ society,^ particularly under_Jhe^g,uidance\L 
 of the indef atigg-bia, Hpoke, equally efficient in the most (f 
 varied branches of investigation. To give a hint of the u 
 significance of the early work of the Royal Society, I shall e 
 mention a few of the most famous lines of experimenta-/ 
 tior^. 
 X^As in the case of the Cimento, much effort was directe d'*^^ 
 
 to the inve ntion and improvement of instruments. For 
 
 instance, Hooke improved the telescope, devised a spring for 
 watches, etc." The study of micro-organisms was a topic 
 especially cultivated by the society, as it was of particular 
 interest to its curator, Robert Hooke. He had improved 
 the microscope, and with this showed the society the ap- 
 pearance of a common moth, of crystals, moulds, seeds, 
 gnats, scales and fleas.* So delighted was the company that 
 '^. " Mr. Hooke was charged to bring one microscopical ob- 
 servation at every meeting." ^ 
 
 ' Sprat, op. cit., pp. 215 sqq. 
 
 ' "Eight committees were appointed on March 30, 1664: i, Mechan- 
 ical, consisting of 69 members; 2, Astronomical and Optical, consisting 
 of IS members ; % Anatomical, consisting of Boyle, Hooke, Dr. 
 Wilkins, and all physicians of the society, and seven other Fellows; S. 
 Geological, consisting of 32 members; 6, for histories of trades, con- 
 sisting of 35 members; 7, for collecting all the phenomena of nature 
 hitherto observed, and all experiments made and recorded, consisting 
 of 21 members." Weld, op. cit., i, pp. 174 sqq. 
 
 ' About this Hooke had violent contests with Huygens. 
 
 * Birch, History of the Royal Society, i, p. 216. 
 
 ' Ibid., i. p. 215. The collection of these observations forms one of 
 
I40 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES ' 
 
 f The study of micro-organisms suggested the question of 
 (^sgiontas£QUS_g^eratio.n. We hear of Boyle's experiments 
 along these lines, and again upon " Sir Robert Moray's 
 inquiring how worms could come from vinegar, Dr. God- 
 dard suggested that vinegar probably had crude waterish 
 matter, which, turning into slimy substance, might breed 
 worms." ^ 
 
 Problems of dynamics were investigated under the di- 
 rection of Hooke; he devised an instrument to demonstrate 
 Galileo's laws of falling bodies ; made extensive studies of 
 the laws of free fall from St. Paul's donie, and in the 
 course of these studies claimed to have discovered the 
 law that attraction varies inversely as the square of dis- 
 tances.^ Problems of optics, especially of the nature of 
 color and colors of thin plates and soap bubbles, were 
 studied by the tireless curator of the society. 
 
 Another series of experiments, wherein the society, un- 
 der Boyle's and Hooke's leadership did pioneer work, was 
 the study of the relation of air to breathing and burning. 
 Borelli had shown that not merely the movement of the 
 chest, but air was essential to life.^ This Hooke demon- 
 strated by putting dogs and vipers under the receptacle of 
 a rarifying engine, asphyxiating and reviving them in turn.* 
 But how utterly at sea as to the real issues all these experi- 
 menters were, is shown by Hooke's inquiry : whether air is 
 consumed, or generated in burning.'' Boyle had shown that 
 
 the earliest books printed by the society, Hooke's Micrographia, a most 
 interesting volume. Its preface, often quoted by me, is a veritable 
 hymn to inductive science and the Royal Society. 
 
 ' Birch, op. cit., ii, p. 49. 
 
 ' This involved him in a priority contest with Newton. 
 
 ' Foster, M., op. cit., p. 180. 
 
 ' Birch, History of the Royal Society, ii, p. 188. 
 
 ' Ibid., iii, p. yy. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 141 
 
 both candle light and life were extinguished in a vacuum, 
 At Dr. Ent's suggestion the society put animals and burn- 
 ing coal simultaneously into the receptacle of an airpump, 
 and attempted to study the interrelation of burning and 
 breathing.^ These investigations directed the interest of 
 the company toward questions of a physiological nature, 
 and experiments of injecting liquors in veins,^ etc., were 
 made. 
 
 Great interest was aroused during 1666 and 1667 by ex\ 
 periments in the- trans fusitrrr^'FnSIooHTl On the 20th off 
 June, 1^6, the first notice of a remarkable operation for 
 the transfusion of blood was recorded in the Journal-book. ' 
 Dr. Wallis related the success of the experiment made at^ 
 Oxford by I^i\Lower, 
 
 of transfusing the bloud of one animal into the body of an- 
 other, viz., that having opened the jugular" artery of a mastiff, 
 and injected by the means of quils the bloud thereof into the 
 jugular vein of a greyhound, and opened also a vein in the 
 same greyhound, to let out so much of his bloud as was re- 
 quisite for the receiving that of the mastiff; the mastiff at last 
 died, having lost almost all his bloud, and the greyhound hav- 
 ing his vessels closed, survived, and ran away well.* 
 
 This account created great interest amongst the Fellows, 
 and the identical experiment was tried before the society, 
 November 14, 1666. .^^It was repeated by bleeding a sheep 
 into a mastiff, and thus the possibility of blood transfusion 
 between different animals was established. t^ A few months 
 later an account was recei ved fro m Paris of two experi-\ 
 
 1 Birch, op. cit., ii, p. 12. 
 
 • Weld, op. cit, i, p. 273. 
 
 ' These will be described somewhat fully on account of the interest 
 this question meets with in recent research. 
 
 * Weld, op. cit., i, p. 192. ' Ibid., i, p. 195. 
 
\> 
 
 142 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 ments made at the Academie des Sciences, on a youth and/j 
 an adult, whose veins were opened and injected with theN 
 blood of lambs. The experiment according to the account,) 
 succeeded so well that the Royal Society became anxious to 
 repeat it, and Sir George Ent suggested that it would be 
 most advisable to try it upon " some mad person in Bed- 
 lam." ' But Dr. Allen, of the insane asylum, " scrupled to 
 try the experiment." It was ultimately performed on 
 poor student, named Arthur Coga, who being in want 
 money, offered himself to the investigators for a guinea. 
 The operation was performed by Dr. Lower and Dr. King 
 at Arundel House on the 23rd of November, 1667, in the 
 presence of several spectators, among whom the Bishop of 
 Salisbury, and some members of Parliament, and sheep 
 blood was transfused through the patient's veins.^ The ex- 
 periment was repeated at a public meeting of the society 
 on the 1 2th of December following, when eight ounces of 
 blood were taken from Coga, and about fourteen ounces of 
 sheep's blood injected. ^^^^hile success attended this oneij 
 experiment in England, in Paris after one fatal result the f— 
 courts interdicted further transfusion of blood, and this line 
 of research was likewise stopped in England^ / 
 
 Another most important feature of the laboratory workV 
 
 ' Weld, op. cit., i, p. 200. 
 
 ' Weld, op. cit., i, pp. 220 sqq. Oldenburg, in a letter to Boyle, giving 
 an accotint of the experiment, observes: "Dr. King performed the 
 chief part of it with great dexterity, and so much ease to the patient, 
 that he made not the least complaint, nor so much as any grimace dur- 
 ing the whole time of the operation; that he found himself very well 
 upon it, his pulse and appetite being better than before, his sleep good, 
 his body as soluble as usual." . A person asking why the patient 
 had not the blood of some other creature instead of that of a sheep 
 transfused into him, he answered : " Sanguis ovis symboUcam quondam 
 facultatem habet cum sanguine Christi, quia Christus est Agnus Dei." 
 
 ' Weld, op. cit., i, p. 222. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 
 
 143 
 
 I Qf the Royal S ociety was the repetition and testing of _ ex- v 
 periments done by other scientists and societies. The com- 
 pany testeH and repeated the series of experiments of 
 Boyle with the vacuum,^ Huygens' work on the isochronous 
 pendulum;^ Mariotte's investigations relating to the bl'nd 
 spot in the eye; ' the experiments of Steno, De Graat, of 
 Van Helmont,* and of Guericke.^ When in 1667 the Saggi\ 
 of the Cimento were presented to the society, the task of»- 
 reviewing them was assigned to a special committee, and| 
 the experiments there described, especially those made with I 
 " Boyle's Engine," were tested.* 
 
 It _was^ characteristic of the type of^men in the society 
 that many pf_their investigations djalt with eminentlxjj.rac-/ 
 t ical subj ects/ Sprat described this phase of their work ; 
 as follows: 
 
 They have propounded the composing a catalogue of all 
 trades, works, and manufacture . . . taking notice of all 
 physical receipts or secrets, instruments, tools, and engines, 
 manual operations or sleights . . . They recommended advanc- 
 ing the manufacture of tapestry, silk-making, melting of lead 
 ore with pit coal . . . making trials of English earths to see 
 if they will (not do) for perfecting of the potter's art. They 
 have (compared) soils and clays for k.iaking better bricks and 
 tiles. They started the propagation of potatoes and experi- 
 ments with tobacco oil.' 
 
 ' Birch, History of the Royal Society, iv, p. 259. 
 
 ' Ibid., ii, p. 489. ' Ihid., ii, p. 281. 
 
 * Ibid., ii, p. 239. ' Ibid., iv, p. 259. 
 
 ' Ibid., ii, pp. 256 sq. 
 
 ''As Hooke (o/". cit., Preface) puts it: (They) "acknowledge 
 their most useful information to arise from common things and diver- 
 sify their most ordinary operations upon them." 
 
 » Sprat, op. cit., pp. 190 sqq. 
 
144 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Investigations were made for bettering wines, improving! 
 methods of brewing ale and beer/ manuring with Hme.' 
 devising a new cider press, a lamp for4iatching eggs/ They 
 studied how foils were made in Germany,* and questions 
 relating to the designing of carriages/ Sir /jetty's ship 
 aroused the greatest interest, and after it was wrecked Sprat 
 felt much as Germany felt about the Zeppelin machine — it 
 should be tried again at public expense/ Winthrop read 
 1 paper concerning the convenience of building ships in some 
 Df the northern parts of America, on account of the great 
 store of good oak and pine and saw-mills there/ As early as 
 October 15, 1662, the King declared that no patent should 
 be~gTajtite3"7or"ari^'''pKir6^'pKrS I 
 
 til 1ScaSnne3"^^rtfie'societ£? I?ence there were submitted 
 to the Fellows many engines, for instance, one to make 
 linen cloth, which is interesting as a forerunner of Har- 
 greave's machine/ Even from Germany models of ma- 
 chinery, e. g., a printing press, were presented to them/" 
 
 Another phase of the work of the society — as we saw^^ 
 alcove — was the inquiry into conditions in foreign lands. 
 
 1 Birch, op. cit., ii, p. 489. 
 
 ' Ibid., i, p. 162. 
 
 ' Ibid., i, p. 246. 
 
 * Ibid., ii, p. 259. 
 
 ' " Haak is to bring a draft of great wagons of Lubeck and Hamburg 
 carrying sixteen persons and nine horses three abreast." Ibid., ii, 
 p. 28. 
 
 ° Sprat, op. cit., p. 240. 
 
 ' Birch, op. cit., i, p. II2. 
 
 " Weld, op. cit., i, p. 137. 
 
 ° Philosophical Transactions (Abridged), i, pp. 501 sq. It was de- 
 scribed in the following manner : " The' advantages of the engine are 
 these — one mill will set ten or twelve of these looms at work. One 
 boy will serve to tie the threads at several looms.'' 
 
 '° Cantor, op. cit., iii, p. 36. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY I45 
 
 We find their methods in these inquiries described in detail 
 by Sprat/ who also gives a complete example of such 
 queries and replies from Java/ When people started on/ 
 voyages, it was customary to ask the society what inquiries 
 the travelers should make." So, systematically, the fabu- 
 lous notions concerning foreign countries were made to give 
 way to rational ideas about them.. 
 
 The importan t question, . whether the Rgyal- Society 
 
 should un dertake educationaj work^.^jljc..pr£sented-4tself. 
 
 Forming a college — as they were permitted to, d.Q, by Jieir 
 
 -/ charter — seemeB~ advlsaBIeT "as it would, in Oldenburg's 
 
 words : 
 
 in all likelihood establish our institutio n and fix us who are 
 now looked upon but as wanderers and using precariously the 
 lodgings of other men in a certain place, where we may meet, 
 prepare and make our experiments and observations, lodge 
 our curators and operators, have our laboratory, observatory, 
 and operatory, all together.* 
 
 T hen it was thou glit that a college might serve as a source 
 of much needed income.^ Th e majority, however. undeJjp 
 
 ' "First they employ Fellows to examine treatises, etc., of countries; 
 they employ others to discourse with seamen, travellers, tradesmen 
 and merchants; then they compose a body of questions about ob- 
 servable things. Then the Fellows would start correspondence with 
 the East Indies, China, St. Helena, Teneriff, Barbary, Morocco . . " 
 (Sprat, op. cit., p. 155.) "In this our chief and most wealthy mer- 
 chants and citizens many have assisted with their presence and con- 
 tributed their labors and helped correspondence; employed factors 
 abroad to answer inquiries ; they have laid out in all countries for ob- 
 servations and gifts. . " Ibid., p. 129. 
 
 ' Ibid., pp. 158 sqq. 
 
 8 Birch, op. cit., i, p. 297, quotes an instance of such inquiry made by 
 a German prince, traveling in Egypt. 
 
 * Weld, op. cit., i, p. 208. 
 
 • Christopher Wren had plans for sUch a college all drawn, which 
 
146 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 the lead of Boyl e, were averse to turning th e .s.ocifity^&-work:»|r- 
 ofTnvestigation into teaching channels.^ 
 "Ano ther phase of educational work — that of giving_k .c-v 
 tures — to-day so important a part of IbjeJbmction of leaxned 
 socjetiesT^was iiS in^une, 1664, by Sir John Cutler, 
 
 who founded a proleisorsHTp^oI mechanics, and, with the 
 concurrence of the Council of the Royal Society, settled 
 an annual stipend of fifty pounds during life on Hooke, 
 empowering the President, Council and Fellows of the so- 
 ciety to appoint the subjects and number of lectures.^ The 
 only other endowed lectureship in these early years was due 
 to a bequest by Dr. Croone's widow.^ 
 
 1^ Later (1673) the society conceived the idea of public 
 meetings, apparently every Thursday, both as a source of 
 education and of income.* The character of the public lec- 
 
 sound most attractive and modern. Weld gives these plans in full: 
 " It contains in the foundations, first a cellar and a fair laboratory ; 
 then a little shop or two, for forges and hammer works, with a 
 kitchen and little larder. ... In the third story are two chambers 
 with closets, for the Curators . . . (there is) a little passage-gallery 
 the whole length of the building, for trial of all glasses and other 
 experiments that require length. On one side of the gallery are little 
 shops all along for operators. . The platform of lead is for tra- 
 versing the tubes and instruments, and many experiments. In the 
 middle rises a cupola for observations and may be fitted, likewise, for 
 an anatomy theatre; and the floors may be so ordered, that from the 
 top into the cellar may be made all experiments for light." Weld, op. 
 cit., pp. 212 sq. 
 
 •Weld, op. cit., i, p. 214. 
 
 » Ihid., i, p. 173- 
 
 * " One-fifth of the clear rent of the King's Head tavern be vested 
 in the Royal Society, for the support of a lecture and illustrative ex- 
 periment, for the advancement of natural knowledge on local motion, 
 or (conditionally) on such other subject, as in the opinion of the 
 President for the time being, should be most useful in promoting the 
 objects for which the Royal Society was instituted." Weld, op. cit., 
 i, p. 289. 
 
 ♦ Weld, op. cit., i, p. 247. They passed a resolution rendering it im- 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 147 
 
 tures may be inferred from a program arranged for the 
 entertainment of the King.^ 
 
 But we must turn now to another feature of the society's 
 work, scarcely less important than that done in the labora- 
 tory, the est ablishmen t of intercommunication between^ 
 s cientists .^. However extensiventEe"'3uiEres'"oT°'ffie"'curator 
 seemed, they were slight compared to the labor that rested 
 on the shoulders of the second secretary/Oldenburg He 
 describes his duties as follows: 
 
 Attends meetings . . Noteth the observables said and done 
 there . . digesteth them in private . . takes care to have them 
 entered in Journal and Register book . . reads over and cor- 
 rects all entries, solicits performance of tasks recommended 
 and undertaken . . . writes all letters abroad and answers re- 
 turns made to him, entertaining correspondence with at least 
 thirty persons, employes a great deal of time and takes much 
 pain in satisfying forrain demands about philosophical matters, 
 disperses far and near store of directions, inquires for the 
 societies purpose : Q. Whether such a person ought to be left 
 unassisted.^ 
 
 The extensive correspondence Oldenburg kept up, was col- 
 lected in the voluminous folios of the Letter books. It was 
 invaluable as it formed the means of keeping in touch with 
 what was done for science in other countries. First, 
 
 perative on every member of the existing council " to provide an ex- 
 perimental! discourse for the society, to be made at some publique 
 meeting within the year, either by himself, or by some other member 
 of the society, or to pay forty shillings." 
 
 1 Boyle should show experiments on cohesion, air pressure, change 
 of color in chemicals, heating magnet; Goddard should experiment 
 with the hygroscope; Dr. Ent should show the anatomy of the lobster 
 and oyster; Clarke, his collection of insects; Hooke should show ex- 
 periments with a thermometer, an artificial eye, and casting of pictures 
 on the wall. Birch, op. cit., i, p. 312. 
 
 ^National Biography, Oldenburg. 
 
1^8 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 there were the letters with the regular foreign correspon- 
 dents for example, Hevelius, the Dantzig astronomer, Huy- 
 gens, Malpighi,^ sought eagerly both by Oldenburg and 
 the foreigners.^ Then scientists from everywhere com-"" 
 municated their ideas, discoveries and observations to 
 Oldenburg,* indeed the reading of these foreign let- 
 ters formed an essential feature of the sessions of the so- 
 ciety. Thr ough this correspon dence the Royal Society was 
 in constant touch with other nations, so that at times it seems 
 an mternationaJ, rather" tlian an English body; every im - 
 
 portoiT'Sperlment, every importanF article was c ommuni - 
 catedToTFalmosFas soon as it was pubrislTe3r~*Hence when 
 a lOTeigir"savahT'arnve3r'at: London Kelound the society 
 fully instructed in his work. How important this element 
 of correspondence was is shown by the fact that after the 
 death of Oldenburg, anxious inquiries were made about its 
 continuance.* 
 
 Besides_letter_writirig, .the industrious secretary had toy 
 follow all scientific articles printed in contemppratieous 
 puBricSiOT|§7 This was, fortunately for Oldenburg a slight 
 task, at the commencement of his secretaryship, but in 
 succeeding years it involved the reading of articles in the 
 Journal des Savants, Miscellanea Curiosa, and other scien- 
 tific journals.' This task Oldenburg conscientiously per- 
 formed, and reported on important articles at the sessions.® 
 
 ' Birch, op. cit., ii, p. 333- 
 
 ' Leopold of Medici, Cardinal in 1668, obtained the Pope's permission 
 to correspond with the 'Royal Society. Ibid., ii, p. 335. 
 
 ' To give instances : " Letter received from Steno ; he had found 
 method of working certain lenses." Birch, op. cit., ii, p. 100 ; " Gov- 
 ernor Winthrop from Massachusetts reports to Oldenburg on (un- 
 successful) experiments." Birch, op. cit., i, p. 280. 
 
 * Birch, op. cit., iii, p. 418. 
 
 "> See below Chapter VIL 
 
 « Birch, op. cit., ii, p. 358. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 149 
 
 Out of Oldenburg's wide correspondence and his re- 
 cord of the experiments of the society, developed his 
 publication of a , regular periodical scientific paper, The 
 Philosophic Transactions. The Journal des Savants, ante- 
 dating it by three months, deprives it of the honor of being 
 the first scientific periodical, but it was the first ever pub- 
 lished under the auspices of a society which was destined 
 to last to the present time. The Royal Society had early 
 planned a regular publication ; ^ but as nothing was done 
 Oldenbiirg decided, as a private venture, to publish monthly 
 the matters of most importance which the members of the 
 society or foreign scientists communicated to him. This 
 plan was accepted by the society. On the first of March, 
 1664-5, it was ordered at a meeting of the Council: 
 
 that the Philosophical Transactions, to be composed by Mr. 
 Oldenburg, be printed the first Monday of every month, if he 
 have sufficient matter for it ; and that the tract be licensed by 
 the Council of the society, being first reviewed by some of the 
 
 ' This is evident from the subjoined notice of Robert Hooke (1663) : 
 " They conceive many usefull and excellent observations may be col- 
 lected into a general repository, where inquisitive men be sure to find 
 them safely and carefully preserved. . They resolve to gratify all 
 that communicate, with suitable returns of such experiments, ob- 
 servations, and inventions of their own, or advertisements from others 
 of their correspondents. And that you may understand what parts 
 of naturall knowledge they are most inquisitive for at this present, 
 they designe to print a Paper of advertisements once every week or 
 fortnight at furthest, wherein will be contained the heads or sub- 
 stance of the inquiries they are most solicitous about, together with 
 the progress they have made and the information they have received 
 from other hands, together with a short account of such other philo- 
 sophicall matters as accidentally occur, and a brief discourse of what 
 is new and considerable in their letters from all parts of the world, 
 and what the learned and inquisitive are doing or have done in physick, 
 mathematicks, mechanicks, opticks, astronomy, medicine, chymistry, 
 anatomy, both abroad and at home." Weld, op. cit., i, pp. 148 sq. 
 
ISO 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 members of the same; and that the President be now desired 
 to license the first papers thereof.' 
 
 In conformity with this order, the first number of the 
 Transactions appeared on Monday, March 6th.^ 
 
 Thus originated the famous series of volumes ^ to which 
 Huxley pays the following tribute : 
 
 If all the books in thef world except the Philosophical Trans- 
 actions were destroyed, it is safe to say that the foundations of 
 physical science would remain unshaken, and that the vast 
 intellectual progress of the last two centuries would be largely, 
 though uncompletely, recorded.^ 
 
 y Oldenburg's dedication to the Royal Society clearly 
 '/shows that the publication was his work and not the 
 ' society's.* His introduction is a clear statement of the 
 ,, purposes of scientific publications : 
 
 1 Weld, op. cit., i, p. 177. 
 
 " Upon Oldenburg's death. Dr. Nehemiah Grew, the succeeding sec- 
 retary, published five contributions within two years. Then the pub- 
 lication was intermitted for three years, and Dr. Hooke published the 
 Philosophical Collections ("Accounts of Physical, Anatomical, Chymi- 
 cal, Mechanical, Astronomical, Optical, and other mathematical and 
 philosophical experiments and Observations") which have always been 
 considered a portion of the Transactions (1681-1682) ; then for a 
 year the publication was discontinued, owing to the limited sale and 
 ■small profit to the secretary; in 1683 Dr. Robert Plot revived the old 
 Philosophical Transactions, and he, Musgrave and Dr. Halley pub- 
 lished them continuously, but not monthly, from 1683 to 1687. They 
 were revived again in ^6gi^ and from thenceforth have been pub- 
 lished uninterruptedly. Thomson, History of the Royal Society, p. 7. 
 
 3 Huxley, Thos. H., On Improving Natural Knowledge. 
 
 * To the Royal Society. . In these rules collections, which are 
 only the gleanings of my private diversions in broken hours, it may 
 appear that many minds and hands are in many places industriously 
 employed, under your countenance, and by your example, in the pur- 
 suit of those excellent ends, which belong to your heroical under- 
 takings. . . And thus have I made the best use of some of (my 
 minutes of leisure) ... to spread abroad encouragements, inquiries, 
 directions and patterns, that may animate and draw on universal assist- 
 ance. Weld, op. cit., i, p. 178. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 151 
 
 Whereas there is nothing more necessary for promoting the 
 improvement of philosophical matters, than the communicat- 
 ing to such as apply their studies and endeavors that way, such 
 things as are discovered and put in practice by others; it is 
 therefore thought fit to employ the press, as the most proper 
 way to gratifie those whose engagement in such studies and 
 delight in the advancement of learning and profitable dis- 
 coveries doth entitle them to the knowledge of what this king- 
 dom, or other parts of the world do afford, as well as of the 
 progress of the studies, labours and attempts of the curious 
 and learned in things of this kind, as of their compleat dis- 
 coveries and performances; to the end that such productions 
 being clearly and truly communicated, desires after solid and 
 usefull knowledge may be further entertained, ingenious en- 
 deavours and undertakings cherished, and those addicted to 
 or conversant in such matters may be invited and encouraged 
 to search, try and find out new things, impart their knowledge 
 to one another, and contribute what they can to the grand 
 design of improving natural knowledge, and perfecting all 
 philosophical arts and sciences. . . . 
 
 The range of articles can be seen from the contents of 
 the first number : 
 
 An Accompt of the improvement of Optick Glasses at 
 Rome. Of the Observation made in England of a Spot in 
 one of the Belts of the Planet Jupiter. Of the Motion of the 
 late Comet predicted. The heads of many new Observations 
 and Experiments, in order to an Experimental History of 
 Cold, together with some thermometrical discourses and ex- 
 periments. A relation of a very odd monstrous Calf. Of a 
 peculiar Lead Ore in Germany, very useful for essays. Of 
 an Hungarian Bolus, of the same effect with the Bolus 
 Armenus. Of the new American Whale-fishing about the 
 Bermudas. A Narrative concerning the success of the pen- 
 dulum watches at sea for the longitudes; and the grant of 
 a Patent thereupon. A Catalogue of the Philosophicall Books 
 publisht by Monsieur de Fermat, Counsellour at Tholouse, 
 lately dead. 
 
152 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 It is characteristic that three of these articles deal with 
 scientific instruments. Indeed matters relating to the grind- 
 ing of lenses, the improvement of the telescope, the con- 
 struction and use of barometers, contesting opinions of in- 
 strument makers occur continually in the pages of the 
 publication. 
 
 '^ T he next con sniajfms~j£atur£.j3i.4;be-r.r^mjaciiQjaj was 
 that they constituted an international battle ground of scien- 
 t ific^^^^ ^^jons -"loiF" exam^e7°wKen7[uzout had a different 
 view from Cassini, they communicated, through the London 
 publications. Reviews of foreign books, extracts from the 
 Journal des Savants, reports of the proceedings of the 
 Academie des Sciences, were fairly permanent features. 
 The writings of Boyle and reviews of his works fill many 
 a folio page, clearly showing that he was the conspic|i,uous 
 figure in science in England before Newton became promi- 
 nent. Discussions and reports of astronomical and physio- 
 logical works are very numerous. The greatest number of 
 papers are on experimental physics and biological sciences.^ 
 Indeed the preface, with which the society's publications 
 were renewed in 1683, sums up best their most essential 
 feature : 
 
 They are a specimen of many things which lie before them 
 (that is, the society), contain a great variety of useful matter, 
 are a convenient register for the bringing in and preserving 
 
 ' It is impossible to give an account of the contents of the volumes 
 of the Philosophical Transactions, but some notion of the relative at- 
 tention given by the society to the various subjects from 1665 to 1683 
 can be obtained from the proportion of papers devoted to each as 
 grouped in the Index of the Transactions (abridged-by Charles iHutton, 
 George Shaw, i!p.ichard Pearson, 1809), Natural Philosophy, Acoustics, 
 Astronomy, Hydraulics, Magnetism, Meteorology, Optics, Pneu- 
 matics, 263 ; Agriculture, Antiquities, Voyages, 41 ; Anatomy, Physiol- 
 ogy, Surgery, Medicine, Pharmacy, Chemistry, 131 ; Natural History, 
 Botany, Mineralogy, Zoology, 237; Chronology, Geography, Mathe- 
 niatics, Mechanics, Navigation, 47; discussion of books, 395. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 
 
 153 
 
 I many experiments which, not enough for a book, would else 
 r be lost, and have proved a very good ferment for the setting 
 of men of uncommon thoughts in all parts awork. 
 
 It is undoubtedly due to the sturdy perseverance of Olden- 
 burg that this enterprise was launched amid forbidding 
 financial difficulties. During his life the one hundred and 
 thirty-six monthly publications (1665-1677), filling the first 
 twelve volumes, came out regularly, though they never 
 yielded him a greater profit than four pounds a year, gener- 
 ally less.^ ^ 
 
 / The great interest the publication aroused is shown by the 
 fact that the Transactions were published in Latin in Frank- 
 
 ^ furt in 1671, in Leipzig 1674, and also in Amsterdam, 1671.^ 
 A most important phase of the society's work is yet to 
 be touched upon, the publication of scientific works, by 
 both members and foreigiTscientisH!^ The SiFst book they 
 published was Evleyn's Sylvia,^ soon afterwards Hooke's 
 Micrographia* The^sodet^Jbas^he d^^^ of having ^> 
 
 h glped John Rgiy° in 1667 to publish the work of his friend 
 and patron, Sir Francis Willoughby, History of Fishes, a 
 
 1 Weld, op. cit., i, p. 260. Ibid., i, p. .182, in a MS. letter of Olden- 
 burg's to Boyle, dated London, December ig, 1665, we have the fol- 
 lowing account of the sale of the Transactions: "Mr. Davis (the 
 printer) tells me that of the first Transactions he printed he had not 
 vended above three hundred, and that he fears there will hardly sell 
 so many as to repay the charge of paper and printing, so that it seems 
 my pains and trouble would be of no avayle to me." 
 
 2 Miscellanea Curiosa, xxv, Index. 
 ' Thomson, op. cit., i, p. 65. 
 
 * Hooke, Robert, op. cit.. Preface. He states : All was undertaken 
 in prosecution of the design of the Royal Society. 
 
 * John Ray was among the society's most famous members; he and 
 Willoughby traveled extensively in England and on the continent for 
 the purpose of collecting plants and animals and systematizing them. 
 Ray published these results as Historia plantarum in three volumes, 
 at the expense of Willoughbys widow, but later works on snakes and 
 insects were published at the society's expense. Carus, op. cit., p. 430. 
 
154 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 notable work in zoology. ^ It also arranged for the trans- 
 lation of the Saggi oi the Accademia del Cimento,^ and for 
 the translation of the valuable History of Animals which 
 the Academie des Sciences had issued. Similarly, works 
 of foreign scientists were published.* 
 
 The notice of scientific works through correspondence, 
 and their publication both in the Philosophical Transactions 
 and in book form, was a great encouragement to scientists, 
 as is best shown by the relation of the society to Leuwen- 
 hoeck. The first notice of Leuwenhoeck in the records of 
 the Royal Society occurs in a letter in which Graafe wrote 
 to Oldenburg (1673) that "one Mr. Leuwenhoeck hath 
 lately contrived microscopes, excelling those that have been 
 hitherto made." A short communication from Leuwen- 
 hoeck accompanied the letter, in which he described the 
 structure of a bee and a louse. From this period Leuwen- 
 hoeck was in the habit of constantly transmitting to the 
 society all his microscopical observations and discoveries, 
 and three hundred and seventy-five papers and letters of 
 Leuwenhoeck, extending over a period of fifty years, are 
 preserved in the archives of the Society.* He published in 
 the Philosophical Transactions his paper on Red Blood Cor- 
 puscles, and in 1676 his letter on a great number of observa- 
 
 ' Weld, op. cit., i, p. 310. This publication cost the society four hun- 
 dred pounds and it exhausted the treasury to such an extent that the 
 salaries even of their officers were in arrears, and Halley was paid 
 fifty pounds as " fifty books on fishes " 
 
 ' Waller, Richard, op. cit. 
 
 • Weld, op. cit., p. 227. It is deserving of record that the cele- 
 brated Malpighi, while holding the professorship of medicine at Mes- 
 sina, sent his work, Dissertatio Epistolica de Bomhyee, to the society, 
 with a request that it might be issued under their auspices. More- 
 over, an evidence of the high esteem in which the judgment of the 
 Royal Society was held was shown by the fact that foreign scientists, 
 such as De Graafe, Swammerdam and Leibnitz dedicated their books 
 to the society. 
 
 * Weld, op. cit., i, pp. 244 sq. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 
 
 155 
 
 tions concerning animalculae. The gratitude he felt to- 
 ward the society for the help they gave him will be seen 
 by the following extract from one of his letters : 
 
 1 have a small black cabinet, lacker'd and gilded, which has 
 five little drawers in it, wherein are contained thirteen long 
 and square tin boxes, covered with black leather. In each of 
 these boxes are two ground microscopes, in all six and twenty ; 
 which I did grind myself and set in silver; and an account of 
 each glass goes along with them. 
 
 This cabinet, with the aforesaid microscopes (which I shall 
 
 make use of as long as I live) I have directed my only daughter 
 
 'to send to your Honors, as soon as I am dead, as a mark of 
 
 I my gratitude, and acknowledgment of the great honor which 
 
 I have received from the Royal Society.^ 
 
 H ow far the society went in encouraging original re-V^ 
 search becomes evident from the fact that Oldenburg de- 
 vised~arinei5is of protecting inventors and securing rights 
 of priority even in unfinished investigations.^ Pressure ' 
 was exerted on all the Fellows to do research work, partly 
 perhaps for the selfish reason of having material for the) 
 public lectures. The Journal book records : " Ordered, that 
 such of the Fellows as regard the welfare of the society, 
 should be desired to oblige themselves to entertain the 
 society, either per se, or per aliosf once a year, at least with 
 a philosophical discourse grounded upon experiments made, 
 or to be made . . . " ° 
 
 iWeld, op. cit., i, p. 243. 
 
 2 Oldenburg proposed " that a proper person might be found out to 
 discover plagiarys, and to assert inventions to their proper authors." 
 Weld, op. cit., pp. 329 sq. He made the motion that " when any Fellow 
 have any philosophical notion or invention not yet made out, and desire 
 the same, sealed in a box, to be deposited with one of the secre- 
 taries till perfected, this might be allowed, for better securing inven- 
 tions to their author." (Birch, op. cit., ii, p. 24.) 
 
 » Weld, i, pp. 246 sq. Compare also (ibid., i, p. 249) Oldenburg to 
 
156 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 In considering the group of men interested . in experi-^ 
 mental science, it must not be forgotten that we are dealing 
 with pionegjs^and that the opponentTof science were in the 
 overwhelming majority. The publications of the society's 
 early members, with their constant defence of the "innocence" 
 of science and of the society, give ample evidence of this fact, 
 'bishop Sprat, the conservative, religious, university-loving 
 historian of the Royal Society, devoted one of the three 
 books of his history to a justification of the society's design; 
 to proving that the new was not always wrong ; that experi- 
 mental knowledge would not interfere with traditional 
 forms of primary education ; that it would not shake ortho- 
 doxy of belief^Similarly Glanvill, another propagandist for 
 the cause of the society — an enthusiast in science, yet a be- 
 liever in witches — a Cartesian, although an absolute and de- 
 vout follower of Bacon's ideas — wrote to defend the so- 
 ciety. His pamphlet Plus Ultra, or Progress and Advance- 
 ment of Science since the Days of Aristotle. An account of 
 some of the most remarkable late Improvements of Prac- 
 tical, Useful Learning to encourage Philosophical Endeav- 
 ors, occasioned by a conference with one of the notional 
 way (1668), was written in reply to Rev. Robert Crosse 
 who dared to maintain that the Royal Society had done 
 nothing to advance science, and that Aristotle's knowledge 
 could not be excelled.^ In this pamphlet Glanvill re- 
 viewed the recent inventions of marvelous scientific instru- 
 ments, and all this with a 
 
 " principal eye on the Royal Society and noble purposes of that 
 illustrious assembly, which I look upon as a great ferment of 
 
 Ray : " That the work of the society do not be altogether on the 
 shoulders of three or four Fellows . . . you are looked upon as one 
 of those which the Council have in their eye for ^uch an exercise, de- 
 siring you that you would think upon such a subject as yourself shall 
 judge proper, etc." 
 ' Weld, op. cit., i, p. 229. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 157 
 
 useful and generous knowledge," * (which) " makes a bank of 
 all useful knowledge, and maltes possible the mutual assistance 
 that the practical and theoretical part of physics affords each 
 other . . . Indeed, of all combination of men that met for the 
 improvement of science never was any whose designs were 
 better . . . than the Royal Society." ^ It " has done more 
 than philosophy of a notional way since Aristotle opened 
 shop." » 
 
 How much the society needed such defenders was sgorij , 
 made evTdefiF by ,a„mQst virulent attack made upon it bM W"— 
 Dn_Stubbe ,* a physician residing in Warwick, in Kis bool| 
 A censure upon certain passages contained in the History 
 of the Royal Society (i. e., Sprat's) as being destructive of 
 the established Religion and Church of England. Stubbe 
 even kept up a long correspondence with Robert Boyle try- 
 ing to win him away from the society.^ He had a consider- 
 able following in Oxford, and " Stubbeite " came for a 
 while to mean the man who would absolutely disapprove of, 
 and work against, the new science. Of such hostile critics 
 there was indeed a considerable number. 
 
 The main lines of the activities of the Royal Society 
 have now been indicated; they had all clearly developed 
 within the first decade of its existence. But something 
 must be added in regard to certain early members not yet 
 mentioned, and the society's connection with the publica- 
 tion of Isaac Newton's Principia. 
 
 In the second decade of the society's existence there came 
 into prominence in the pages of the Journal, names other 
 than the original Fellows and officers of the society. New- 
 ton and Grew became members in 1671, Flamsteed, 1676, 
 
 • Glanvill, Jos., Plus Ultra, Preface. ^ /bid., p. 83. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 90. * Weld, op. cit., i, p. 229. 
 
 ' Birch, Thomas, Life of Robert Boyle, i, p. gS- 
 
158 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Halley, 1678, and these in due time came to be the 
 dominating personaHties. Newton is well known, but 
 a few words about the others may be in place here. 
 Nehemiah Grew ^ (1641-1712) had studied in Cambridge 
 and received his medical education and degree in Leyden. 
 His interests were exclusively along the lines of natural 
 science. His first remarkable work was the Anatomy of 
 Vegetables, wherein he, simultaneously with Malpighi, in- 
 sisted on an entirely new, anatomical, treatment of botany. 
 His thoughts on this subject grew into the volume Ana- 
 tomy of Plants. Then he turned to the study of zoologi- 
 cal questions and in his work Comparative Anatomy of 
 Stomachs and Guts, became the founder of the science of 
 comparative anatomy. In 1672 ^ he became a fellow cura- 
 tor with Robert Hooke; in 1677, successor to Oldenburg as 
 secretary; in 1686 he immortalized himself among the his- 
 torians of the Royal Society by his Description of Rarities 
 mentioned above. 
 
 Flamsteed (1646- 171 9),' a self-taught astronomer, later 
 a student of Cambridge, is of special significance in the 
 annals of the Royal Society because, as first astrono- 
 mer * of the newly erected Observatory of Greenwich, 
 (1675) he represents the first connecting link between this | 
 Observatory and the London society, a connection which U 
 has persisted to this day. The original cause of this alii- 1 
 ance was not so much affiliation of interests as poverty 
 and the necessity of borrowing instruments." 
 
 ' National Biography, sub verho. 
 
 ' Birch, op. cit., iii, p. 42. ' Wolf, op. cit., pp. 454 sqq. 
 
 * Flamsteed did fundamental work in mapping the stars. His 
 memory has been marred by his peculiar conduct towards Newton; 
 he wanted to withhold certain of his observations, urgently needed 
 by Newton; when they were published in spite of him through the 
 Prince of Denmark, he was so furious that he burned three hundred 
 copies of them. Weld, op. cit., i, p. 378. 
 
 ' The King had left the observatory for a period of nearly fifteen 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 
 
 159 
 
 Halley (1656-1742)^ is among the most remarkable men 
 of the Royal Society and, indeed, of English science.* He 
 gained scientific fame by mapping the stars of the Southern 
 Hemisphere from St. Helena, where he was sent at royal 
 expense. In 1678 he became a Fellow of the society, and 
 was sent to Dantzig to settle a dispute between Hooke and 
 Hevelius. He was interested in the study of gravitation, 
 studied earth magnetism and constructed the isogonal lines 
 of magnetic declination. He calculated the orbit of the 
 " Halley" comet (1682), coupled with a prediction of its 
 return, strikingly verified in 1759.' In 1703 he became 
 Savilian Professor of Geometry in Oxford and in 1720 suc- 
 ceeded Flamsteed as head of Greenwich Observatory. 
 
 I shall not attempt to give an account of the work of the 
 society in these later decades of the century, as it proceeded 
 along the lines already laid down, and shall in conclusion 
 on ly show how close was the connection of the Royal__So- 
 ciety with the works of I saac Newto n/ Newton, Lucasian 
 
 years without a single instrument. Sir Jonas Moore provided Flam- 
 steed with a sextant, two clocks, a telescope, and some books ; other 
 instruments had to be furnished by Flamsteed himself, and he in turn 
 borrowed some from the .Royal Society. The Minutes record : " It 
 was ordered that the astronomical instruments belonging to the so- 
 ciety be lent to the Observatory at Greenwich. Weld, op. cit., i, p. 255. 
 
 1 Wolf, op. cit., pp. 463 sqq. 
 
 ' He published eighty-one papers in the Transactions. 
 
 • Halley also holds a prominent place in the History of Mathe- 
 matics, for his work in the theory of probabilities, in the construction 
 of mortality tables, and solution of higher equations; also for his 
 translation of Greek mathematics from the Arabic. Cantor, op. cit., 
 iii, passim. 
 
 * Newton's relation with the society had commenced in 1669, when 
 he asked Collins to publish a mathematical solution in the Transactions 
 anonymously : " For I see not what there is desirable in public esteem 
 where I am able to acquire and maintain it. It would perhaps in- 
 crease my acquaintance— the thing which I chiefly study to decline." 
 Rigaud, S.J., op. cit. 
 
160 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Professor of Mathematics or Optics at Cambridge, was pro- 
 posed as a member by Seth Ward, December 21, 1671, and 
 elected January 11, 1672.^ He soon communicated the 
 invention of the/ reHectirig"^eIescope/ The society was 
 delighted with the report ari3T5I3eriEurg at once sent a letter 
 to Paris with a detailed description to secure the honor of 
 the invention to Newton.^ The following letter Newton 
 sent to Oldenburg is important for our purpose, in showing 
 the real value of the society's assistance to the scientist : 
 
 At reading of your letter I was surprised to see so much 
 care taken about securing an invention to me of which I have 
 hitherto had so little value: And therefore since the Royal 
 Society is pleased to think it worth patronizing, I must ac- 
 knowledge it deserves much more of them for that than of 
 me, who, had not the communication of it been desired, might 
 have let it still remain in private as it hath already some years." 
 
 Newton next communicated to the society his theory of 
 light and colors,* — in his words : " the oddest, if not the 
 most considerable detection, which had hitherto been made 
 in the operations of nature." It was, according to the 
 Letter-book, 
 
 ordered that the author be solemnly thanked . . . for this very 
 ingenious discourse, and that the society think very fit ... to 
 
 ' Weld, op. cit., i, pp. 232 sq. 
 
 • Ibid., i, pp. 23s sq. 
 
 ' Rigaud, op. cit. (January 6, 1671), ii, p. 311. 
 
 * A communication from Mr. Newton, " Concerning Newton's dis- 
 covery about the nature of light, refractions, and colours, importing 
 that light was not a similar, but a heterogeneous thing, consisting of 
 diflform rays, which had essentially different, refractions, abstracted 
 from bodies they pass through, and that colours are produced from 
 such and such rays, whereof some in their own nature are disposed to 
 produce red, others green, others blue, others pUrple, etc., and that 
 whiteness is nothing but a mixture of all sorts of colours, or that 'tis 
 produced by all sorts of colours blended together." Weld, op. cit., 
 i, p. 237. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY i6i 
 
 have it forthwith pubHshed as well for the greater conveniency 
 of having it well considered by philosophers, as for securing 
 the considerable notions thereof to the author, against the 
 arrogations of others. 
 
 These discoveries were the first of Newton's productions 
 which became known abroad. Though he had lectured on 
 his new theories of color for years to students in Cam- 
 bridge, no report of these had come to the ears even of men 
 so keen to hear as the Fellows of the Royal Society ^ and it 
 was thus due to their activities that they reached the re- 
 public of learned men. This was fully acknowledged and 
 appreciated by Newton, who, in addressing his thanks to 
 Oldenburg, said: 
 
 It was an esteem of the Royal Society for most candid and 
 able judges in philosophical matters that encouraged me to 
 present them with that discourse of light and colours, which, 
 since they have so favourably accepted of, I do earnestly de- 
 sire you to return them my most cordial thanks. I before 
 thought it a great favour to be made a member of that honour- 
 able body, but I am now more sensible of the advantage; for 
 believe me. Sir, I not only esteem it a duty to concur with 
 them in the promotion of re^l knowledge, but a great privilege 
 that, instead of exposing discourses to a prejudiced and cen- 
 sorious multitude (by which means many truths have been 
 baffled and lost) I may with freedom apply myself to so judi- 
 cious and impartial an assembly.^ 
 
 /Newton's theory of colors was bitterly rejected j-nd criti- 
 cized by Hooke and Huygens.^ As..the sqcietx_comrnuni- 
 
 ' Brewster, David, Life of Sir Isaac Newton. 
 
 « Weld, op. cit., i, p. 238. 
 
 • It should be especially noted that in most of Newton's work in 
 physics, his researches were on exactly the same topics as Hooka's. 
 Weld, op. cit., i, p. 239. 
 
1 62 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 cated thisJ:o_I^ewtgnjjL.^y^ .XJ5gJto_ .ac.dmQlii.Qus_debate. 
 Newton thereupon wrote that he would never trouble him- 
 self again to do experiments ; '■ but he continued to pub- 
 [lish papers in the Philosophical Transactions. In 1672 
 he asked to resign from the Royal Society.^ As it 
 was suspected that the weekly shilling might be the cause 
 of this determination, his resignation was not accepted, but 
 he was excused from payments. In 1675 he submitted 
 again to the society his paper on the properties of light, the 
 principal phenomena of colors £uid his (wrong) corpuscular 
 or emission theory of light.' 
 
 In 1684 he came again into the limelight of the activities 
 of the Royal Society never to withdraw until his death in 
 1725. Indeed the writing and publication of his Principia, 
 are intimately connected with the society's work and mem- 
 bers. It was noted that Hooke had earlier made extensive 
 studies in the laws of falling bodies.* In 1674 the tireless 
 Curator published An attempt to prove the motion of the 
 earth, in which he stated that the less the distance of heavenly 
 bodies, the greater their force of attraction. He did not 
 
 1 Weld, op. cit., i, p. 240. 
 
 " " Since I shall neither profit them nor can by reason of distance 
 (Cambridge) partake of advantage of their assemblies, I desire to 
 withdraw." ORigaud, op. cit., ii, p. 348. 
 
 *In the latter he was again attacked by Huygens, and science has 
 of course since decided for the Dutch scientist. 
 
 * The following statement was made by Hooke in 1665 : " Grav- 
 ity, though it seems to be one of the most universal active prin- 
 ciples . . . has had ill fate . . and neglect. The inquisitiveness 
 of the later age has begun to entertain thoughts of it. Gilbert began 
 to imagine it a magnetical attractive power inherent in parts of the 
 terrestrial globe. The Noble Verulam [Voltaire insists upon Bacon 
 as the discoverer of the law of gravitation] also embraced the opinion 
 and Kepler makes it the property inherent in all celestial bodies, sun, 
 stars, planets." But Hooke proposed to try to solve the problem by 
 experimenting. Birch, op. cit., ii, p. 70. 
 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY 1 63 
 
 know the law underlying this relation, but suggested that it 
 would be useful to discover it/ In private conversation 
 with Halley and Wren, who were also deeply interested in 
 the study of these phenomena, Hooke admitted that he be- 
 lieved the force of attraction to be inversely proportional 
 to the square of the distance — a conclusion Halley had also 
 reached; but Hooke refused to give the mathematical ex- 
 planation of how bodies subject to that law would move. 
 Upon this, Halley went to Cambridge and asked Newton 
 what the path of a body moving according to this law would 
 be. Newton answered at once that it would be an ellipse^" 
 and elaborated his explanation and answer in a paper, 
 De MjQiu, which he submitted to the Royal Society, April 
 28, l68g) and which he shortly afterward elaborated into . 
 the £Sii£tpiat The Royal Society, to whom this work was 
 dedicated, intended to publish it at its own cost. But when 
 Hooke's claim ^ of priority threatened to delay this publica- 
 tion, Halley undertook to print it at his own expense, May, 
 1687." 
 
 ' Poggendorff, op. cit., p. s86. 
 
 ' Halley wrote about this claim as follows : " There is one thing 
 more that I ought to inform you [Newton] of, viz., that Mr. Hooke 
 has some pretensions upon the invention of the rule of decrease of 
 gravity being reciprocally as the squares of the distances from the 
 centre. He says xou_had.Jthe notion frQm.him,.„th.ough he owns the 
 demonstratJoii ^f _the j:urves generated^therebytg be wholly your own. 
 How much_of this is so, you know best; as likewise what you have 
 to do in this matter. Only Mr^ Hooke seerns to expect .you _shoijldl 
 maEe~some mention of him in the Preface, which it is possible you 
 may^^s^ reason tO-pcefixJL' Weld, i, pp. 30S sq. " 
 
 3 An interesting incident in the story of this publication is that New- 
 ton wanted to withdraw the third book of his Principia, which con- 
 tains his generalization and application of his mathematical phy- 
 sical laws to the universe and on which his special fame is based : 
 " The third, I now design to suppress. Philosophy is such an im- 
 pertinently litigious lady, that a man had as good be engaged in law 
 suits, as have to do with her. I found it so formerly, and now I am 
 
04 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 I These few remarks are sufficient to show that the early- 
 development of the scientific carder of Newton was most 
 materially influenced by the Royal Society, and that the 
 publication of the Principia must be conceived of as a direct 
 result of the help and stimulation both of the society as a 
 whole, and of one of its most important early members, 
 Halley. , 
 
 y- The development of the Royal Society, from its informal 
 beginnings to the publication of the Principia, has now been 
 reviewed. It has been seen that a body of experimenters 
 and science-loving amateurs, not supported by or affiliated 
 with any learned body, — indeed, hardly helped by the King, 
 — created a center where the new science could be fostered. 
 We have seen them at work, devising as best they could 
 laboratory facilities, making and improving instruments ; ex- 
 perimenting along most varied lines of research; constantly 
 communicating with foreign workers, and establishing the 
 first organ of international scientific cornmunication in the 
 Philosophical Transactions; helping the cause of science by 
 encouraging workers and by publishing their works — in 
 short, supplying that most essential aid, without which the 
 progress of science would have undoubtedly been delayed for 
 decades. And, what is more important, through their exist- 
 ' ence and work they made it clear that a new order of things 
 had arisen, that new facts, new methods of work, new inter- 
 ests were to be recognized in place of the former super- 
 annuated and inherited ideas. The Royal Society must 
 therefore be reckoned as first among the pioneer reforming 
 bodies of the century. 
 
 no sooner near her again, but she gives me warning.'' It was only- 
 out of respect for Hallejr's wishes and finances that he allowed its, 
 publication. Ibid., i, p. 311. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 The Academie des Sciences 
 
 The learned society which came into existence in France 
 in 1666, as has been said above, bore more resemblance to , 
 the Royal Society than to the Cimento, but it was in many 
 ways a very different assembly. It was a royal institutioif] '. 
 not only in name but in deed, and therefore had much of J 
 the rigidity of a governmentjnstitution. But it had also 
 the incalculable advantage of the Resources of a ro yal fteas- 
 uxy. While the English body was forever struggling with 
 financial difficulties, the members of th^ French society drew 
 their fixed pensions, and had the means supplied for ex- 
 perimentation and laboratories. Nay more, the liberal of- 
 fers of Louis XIV attracted scholarship from all quarters, 
 so that at one time the academy seemed almost more a con- 
 tinental than a French gathering.. Further, the fact that) 
 the royal favor came to this learned society from Louis | 
 XIV, the greatest monarch of Europe, gave special prestige ] 
 and glory to the cause of experimental science. 
 
 As was said in connection with the Cimento, it is usual tov/ 
 connect the foundation of .iiie Acadsmi^..des,.3ciences with 
 the jestaWishment of Jhe famous Jiterary Academie Fran- 
 qah&^~' This is in some ways justified, for the precedent 
 established by founding the literary academy in 1635 paved 
 the way for the scientific academy in 1666. This view, 
 however, emphasizes the mere externals of organization, 
 rather than the essential element, the beginnings of^ co- 
 ordinated scientific work of amateurs in France. Yet it is the 
 study of the latter feature that gives us the key to the origin 
 
 i6s 
 
1 66 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 of the Academic des Sciences, and this will be therefore 
 taken up in some detail. 
 
 The earliest instance which has come down to us, of 
 scientists meeTing^"regularly to experiment together were 
 the gatherings at the cell of the noted Minorite Friar Morin 
 Mersenne. Mersenne (1588-1648), a man "truly incom- 
 parable in his way " ^ as Boyle calls him, was an investiga- 
 tor of note, mainly in problems of acoustics; but he is of 
 special importance in the history of science because he was 
 a friend and correspondent of most of the prominent scien- 
 tists of the time, and his correspondence, as is generally ad- 
 mitted, took the place of a scientific journal. He was a 
 most intimate friend of Descartes, and through him Des- 
 cartes communicated for years (1629-1649) with Galileo, 
 Gassendi, Roberval, Hobbs, Carcavi, Cavalieri, Huygens, 
 Hartlieb, etc. It was in this correspondence that the method 
 originated — later so generally adopted — of proposing ques- 
 tions and giving prizes for the best solution of problems ; ' 
 here also the student of the history of science finds the first 
 description of many discoveries which were destined to be- 
 come famous. Mers ennejtraps]?tfd, Galileo's Dialoqo dei 
 duo massim i sistemi del mondo into _French. in ifi%a.. two 
 "years after its condemnation, and later hi s Discors LaaJMs- 
 chanics. As Italian was little understood abroad, Mer- 
 
 senne through these translations may be said to have popu- 
 larized Galileo on the Continent. It is a fact worthy of 
 notice that this was done by a Catholic priest at the time 
 of the apparent height of the hostility of the church to 
 science. 
 
 ' Birch, Life of Boyle, p. xxiv. 
 
 ' Rosenberger, op. cit., ii, p. 93. For instance, through this corres- 
 pondence the famous problem of isochronous pendulum vibrations 
 was proposed and solved by Huygens, which in turn led to his dis- 
 covery of the pendulum clock. 
 
THE ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES 167 
 
 Mersenne's many popular writings show that he belonged 
 to the Baconian group of men who were bent not only on 
 increasing the mass of scientific truths, but on spreading 
 them among the people. His little book Verite" des 
 Sciences ^ ( 1624) and his tract " Les Questions thiologir 
 q,ues, physiques, morales, mathematiques — oil chacun trou- 
 vera du consentment ou de I' exercise " ^ (1634), are of 
 great interest in this connection. 
 
 Mersenne's importance in connection with the Academic 
 des Sciences lay in his intelligent appreciation of the works 
 of others and his own skill as an experimenter. His cell 
 became the meeting place of a group of men interested in 
 mathematical and experimental science, eager to communi- 
 cate their ideas, and hear of similar work done elsewhere. 
 
 Who were the men who met there ? It must first be re- 
 marked that France in the middle of the century stands 
 preeminent in mathematics. There was Paul Fermat 
 (1601-1665), a parliamentarian of Toulouse, called by 
 
 ■ This is in the form of a dialogue between a Sceptic an Alchemist 
 and a Christian Father. The Sceptic is a Cartesian; he doubts all, 
 even Mathematics, Astronomy where no two men agree, Astrology, 
 because nobody knows why Jacob and Esau, who were conceived at the 
 same time, have such different dispositions! The Alchemist admits 
 that we know only one-hundredth of what we ought to know, and de- 
 fends the secrecy of Alchemistic methods. The errors of Aristotle are 
 enumerated. Bacon is criticized because, in his Advancement of 
 Learning, he advocates as new, a method which has been adopted. But 
 the author approves of Bacon's idea of experimentation — incidentally 
 regrets that we shall never know how much faster a stone of one 
 hundred pounds falls than a stone of one pound — O, yes, we shall 
 know it in paradise! 
 
 ' This has, in the manner of a modern popular scientific magazine, 
 forty-six questions with answers affixed, containing an incongruousi 
 mixture of real science and remarks on religion and conduct — for ex- 
 ample: Why is astrology rejected? Why do falling bodies increase 
 in velocity? Is it permitted to maintain that the earth moves? No, 
 on account of a passage in Joshua. 
 
l68 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Cantor the foremost mathematician of France ; ^ the fam- 
 ous mathematician Desargues (1598- 1662) founder of the 
 science of Descriptive Geometry; besides, Rbberval (1602- 
 1675), Professor of Mathematics in the College de France, 
 whose work was along similar lines as Cavalieri's, and 
 Torricelli's. Then there was Blaise Pascal (1623- 1662), 
 both mathematician ^ and physicist, and the famous Pierre 
 Gassendi (1592-1652), a Minorite, like Mersenne, won to 
 the study of Galileo and Kepler through the famous amateur 
 scientist Peiresc/ An opponent of Descartes' teachings, 
 he insisted on upholding empirical against deductive 
 science, and defended the Baconian theory of the import- 
 ance of experimental research. 
 
 These men met at various times,* whenever they pleased, 
 at Pere Mersenne's cell where they were joined by for- 
 eigners interested in science." A good account of these 
 
 ' Cantor, op. cit., ii, p. 798. Fermat was a student of the theory of 
 numbers, and problems of " maximal and minimal values " ; opponent 
 of Descartes and one of the pre-Newtonian students of infinitesimals. 
 
 ' He was the rival and foe of Descartes because, continuing Desar- 
 gues' work, he built up the science of Conic Sections from a different 
 standpoint. During his frivolous earlier years (1654) a gambler friend 
 had put the question to him, how gain was to be divided after several 
 winnings. This investigation fascinated him and led to the founding 
 of a new branch of mathematics, viz., the Theory of Probability. He 
 solved many important problems with which all mathematicians were; 
 dealing, for instance, those connected with the cycloid. Through 
 Mersenne's correspondence he heard of Torricelli's investigation con- 
 cerning the Vacuum, and in conjunction with his brother-in-law, Perier, 
 made the famous experiment noted above (ch. ii). With regard to 
 the attitude of the Church to the Copernican doctrine, he said : "If 
 the earth moves, it cannot be stopped by papal decree." 
 
 ' See above, ch. ii. 
 
 • Duhamel, Johanne Baptista, Regiae Scientiarum Academiae His- 
 toria (1700), p. 8. 
 
 ' We hear of Sir Petty belonging to the group; and of Hobbs, who 
 in his eight months' sojourn had daily converse with members of the 
 scientific circle and said that Mersenne's cell was better than a school. 
 
THE ACAD&MIE DBS SCIENCES 169 
 
 meetings is given by Cassini. A number of savants took 
 pleasure in coming there, and entertaining themselves with 
 astronomical observations, problems of analysis, physical 
 experiments, new discoveries in anatomy and botany. Often 
 they entertained foreigners, among these Oldenburg, and 
 hence, says Cassini, "arose the Royal Society." ^ Later this 
 group of men met at regular intervals (every Thursday) 
 at various houses, including Pascal's.^ Afterwards, some 
 of these mathematicians and physicists met regularly for 
 four or five years, at the house of Hubert de Montmort, 
 member of the Council of State and mditre des requites.^ 
 He seems to have been a man of the Peiresc type, friend of 
 Gassendi, but adherent of the; Cartesian doctrine; of his 
 scientific accomplishments it is only known that he was 
 skilled in dissections.* A report of these . meetings by 
 Tuke to the Royal Society gives the impression of a defi- 
 nite organization, and program, and shows that their main 
 interests were in experimentation.' Tuke was taken by 
 Roberval to this assembly, " whose business is to advance 
 knowledge of nature by conference and experiment." 
 " There I found near twenty persons sitting in a semicircle 
 about the table ... As soon as we were seated, M. de 
 Sorbiere, secretary to the assembly, addressing the presi- 
 dent, told that the gentleman who was to have spoken was 
 
 ^ Cassini, De I'origine de I'Astronomie in Memoires de I'Academie 
 Royale des Sciences, contenants les Ouvrages adoptees par cette Acad- 
 imie avant son renouvellement en 1699, v, p. 26. 
 
 ' Jocher, Gelehrten Lexicon, m. 522. Gatherings of men more in- 
 terested in Physics and Medicine were held at that time in the house 
 of the French physician Abbe Bourdelot (1610-1685). Gallois (1673) 
 published Conversations de I'Academie de M. I'AbbS Bourdelot. 
 
 ' Ch. Adams, Philosophie de Bacon, quoting Lettres de lean Chape- 
 lain, p. 338. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 339- 
 
 • Birch, History of the Royal Society, i, p. 26. 
 
170 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 ill . . . So they fell to* discourse of an experiment which 
 they had lately made." He relates that upon his telling of 
 Boyle's experiment " they desired me to send them Boyle's 
 book, with the promise if they made any discoveries worthy 
 of our knowledge, they would freely impart them to us." ^ 
 The Danish anatomist, Stenon, performed dissection before 
 them, and the experiment of transfusion of blood was tried.'' 
 The most momentous scientific event in the history of this 
 academy must have been when Chapelain read a letter of 
 Huygens,^ telling about the rings of Saturn. Huygens in 
 consequence was introduced to the society and in 1663 
 specially asked to be present. 
 
 This assembly was in correspondence with the Royal So- 
 ciety in 1660, and evidently tried to duplicate its work on 
 French soil.* This is clear from a letter of Huygens who 
 wrote that Montmort's academy, " anxious to emulate the 
 London society," would again apply itself to experi- 
 ments. ° But it was felt that there was a great difference 
 between the situation in England and in France. In 
 France, owing to unhappy conditions, the nobility and 
 gentry had no leisure to cultivate their minds by letters, 
 while the Royal Society, as it seemed to Montmort, was 
 mainly recruited from these groups." Another difference 
 'was that while the Royal Society prided itself on " owning 
 no hypothesis," the French assembly tried to propagate 
 Cartesian views and principles. 
 
 1 Birch, op. cit., i, p. 27. 
 
 • Ch. Adams Bacon, op. cit., p. 339. 
 
 " Bosscha, J., Christian Huygens. Rede am 200sten Gedachtnistage 
 seines Lebensendes (iibersetzt), p. 27. 
 
 ' Birch, Th., History of the Royal Society, i, p. 49. 
 
 ' Ibid., i, p. 27. 
 
 • Ch. Adams, op. cit., p. 338. 
 
THE AC AD EMI E DES SCIENCES 
 
 171 
 
 Later, the scientists met at the home of Melchisedec 
 Thevenot "^ (1620-1692), a man of rare "curiosity," who 
 had studied everything — history, geography, mathematics, 
 physics, philosophy and languages — and had an extended 
 correspondence. Here, as at Montmort's, Stenon per- 
 formed his famous dissection,'' and Cartesian views were 
 propounded. What the scientists accomplished in these 
 gatherings can be surmised from the early papers published 
 by the Academic des Sciences. 
 
 Colbert knew of these meetings at Thevenot's through 
 Perrault and others, and proposed to Louis XIV to give 
 these informal gatherings of "scientists an official status, 
 siich as the Academic Prangaise and the Royal Society al- 
 ready enjoyed. According to Duhamel,* he first planned 
 meetings of three groups : mathematics and physicians, 
 Wednesday and Saturday; historians, Monday and Thurs- 
 day; literary men, Tuesday and Friday; and on one Sun- 
 day of each month there was to be a joint meeting. But 
 this plan came to nothing, as the historians were too much 
 interested in Church History, and the literary class seemed 
 to suggest rivalry with the Academie Frangaise, so the plan 
 reduced itself to arranging for meetings of mathematicians 
 and physicists only. Colbert's aim was to help, thereby, 
 both theoretical science and those investigations which 
 would ultimately advance the "arts et metiers" of France.* 
 That he was its spiritual father rather than Louis XIV is 
 evident from the fact that the Academy flourished only dur- 
 
 ' He was famous as a great traveler and author of the work Rela- 
 tion des divers voyages curieux (166 j). 
 
 * Foster, op. cit., p. 106. 
 
 • Duhamel, op. cit., p. 3. 
 ' Duhamel, op. cit., p. 3. 
 
172 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 ing Colbert's lifetime, until 1683, then declined, until in 
 1699 it was brought to a new life by an entire reorganiza- 
 tion. My account will therefore deal separately with the 
 features of the Academy under Colbert's regime and those 
 during the interregnum following his death; it will only 
 touch upon its reorganization in 1699, as its activities 
 thenceforth fall outside the compass of this investigation. 
 The first appointees ^ of Colbert were men of very dififer- 
 
 1 They are as follows : Bertrand, J., L'AcadSmie des Sciences et les 
 Academiciens, pp. 3 sqq., and Maindron, Revue ScientHique, 1881, 
 p. 68s. 
 
 Auzout, prominent astronomer, and inventor of the telescopic micrb- 
 meter. 
 
 Bourdelin, chemist. 
 
 Buot, engineer and instructor of pages. Least significant member. 
 He had been a workman and knew no word of Latin. 
 
 Carcavi, geometer; he had held position as conseiller of the Parle- 
 ment de Toulouse, in which post he was successor of Pierre Fermat 
 and his scientific executor ; in 1666 held the position of librarian of the 
 King's library, was distinctly a non-professional person, and respon- 
 sible for meetings. 
 
 Couplet, Junior member; Professor of Mathematics at the College 
 de France and student of mechanics. 
 
 Cureau De la Chambre, physician to Louis XIV, also member of the 
 Academic Fran^aise. 
 
 Delavoye Mignot, junior member, geometer. 
 
 Dominique DuClos, chemist, physician of Colbert; he was an alche- 
 mist, but seeing his folly before his death burnt his writings; one 
 of the most active members. 
 
 Duhamel, anatomist; secretary, on account of his good Latinity. 
 
 Frenicle de Bessy, geometrician; a magistrate and author of work 
 on magic squares and theory of numbers. 
 
 Gayant, anatomist; helper of Perrault. 
 
 Abbe Gallois (1632-1707), later Professor of Greek and Mathematics 
 at the College de France, friend of Colbert; successor of Denis de 
 Sallo in editing the Journal des Savants (1665-1674) ; intimate with 
 Colbert, telling him of doings of Academy (Fontenelle £loges). 
 
 Christian Huygens (1629-1695), the only foreign member among 
 first appointees. He was Dutch, but had made his home for some 
 
THE ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES 
 
 173 
 
 ent station in life, physicians, engineers, parliamentarians, 
 all with pronounced interest in science. Three astrono- 
 mers, three anatomists, one botanist, two chemists, seven 
 geometers, one mechanic, three physicians and one unclassi- 
 fied member were in this group. It is not clear what mo- 
 tives controlled these appointments. Duhamel ^ suggests 
 that Colbert picked out not scholars, but skilled men, whom 
 
 time in France; mathematician, astronomer, physicist, designer and 
 maker of instruments (airpump and telescope) not connected with any 
 university, but typically amateur and non-professional, he is one of 
 the most characteristic figures of seventeenth century science. When 
 Colbert appointed him in 1666, he was very prominent in science, 
 had improved the telescope, had discovered two new moons of Saturn, 
 had enunciated the theory of the rings of Saturn and had done great 
 work in mathematics. He had been elected Fellow of the London 
 Royal Society. It is evident that Colbert applied to him for advice 
 (Bertrand, J., op. cit., p. 9) about the work to be done by the Acad- 
 emy, from a manuscript letter of Huygens which is extant and has the 
 comment bon of Colbert on the margin. That he was most closely 
 affiliated with the Academy is evident from the fact that for twelve 
 years of his sojourn in Paris he lived in the building where its meet- 
 ings were held. (Bosscha, op. cit., p. 29; Foster, op. cit., p. 50.) 
 
 Marchand, botanist; head of the royal garden. 
 
 Mariotte, physicist;, overshadowed by the genius of Huygens; he 
 was one of the famous scientists among this body. 
 
 Niquet, junior member; geometer. 
 
 Pecquet, anatomist ; discoverer of the thoracic duct and of the circula- 
 tion of blood in foetus; a man of highest prominence in the history 
 of physiology (Foster, op. cit., p. 50). 
 
 Perrault, the most active member; notable as an architect, builder 
 of one colonnade of the Louvre. He took up successively many 
 sciences — anatomy, zoology, physics, mechanics; conservative in his 
 views, but an indefatigable worker. It was he who interested Colbert 
 in science. 
 
 Picard, astronomer; also one of the best workers; friend of Gas- 
 sendi; Professor of Astronomy in College de France. 
 
 Pivert, junior member; astronomer. 
 
 Richer, junior member; astronomer. 
 
 Roherval, the mathematician of the Mersenne Academy. 
 
 ' Duhamel, op. cit., p. 4. 
 
174 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 every kind of study delighted, and who specialized in one; ^ 
 moreover, men who were attached to no sect.^ 
 
 If the assembly thus established had any statutes or rules, 
 nothing is known of them ; " no document giving any en- 
 lightenment on the subject exists in the archives. A room 
 in the King's library where learned books were kept, was 
 assigned to them; the apartment adjoining was to be the 
 laboratory.* December 22, 1668, Carcavy reported to the 
 assembly the design with which the King had convoked 
 them. Then the question came up — Should the physicists 
 and mathematicians hold their meetings together on 
 Wednesday and Saturday ? It was argued that those who 
 excelled in mathematics were versed in Natural Philosophy, 
 and that geometric exactness would be of great value to the 
 non-mathematical scientists, to keep them from fallacious 
 opinions ; that the separation of physics from mathematics 
 had been the cause of its sterility. The fact that Galileo, 
 Descartes and Gassendi had evidently belonged to both 
 groups proved conclusive. So it was decided that they 
 would always meet jointly, but that on Wednesday, geome- 
 trical, and on Saturdays, physical problems should be dis- 
 cussed. All sessions were to be secret, so as to avoid the 
 
 1 Later there were added to the first appointees. 
 
 Blondel and Cassini (i66g), Roemer (1672), Dodart (1673), Borel 
 (1674), G. J. DuVerney (1674, Leibnitz (1675) (?), P. de la Hire 
 (1678), Sedileau (i68i), Tschirnhausen (1682), Polheuse excl. (1682), 
 Lefevere excl. (1682), De Besse (1683), Mery (1684), Thevenot, RoUe, 
 Cusset (1685), Varignon (1688), Tournefort (1691), Romberg (1691), 
 Charas (1692), De la Coudray, Morin (1693), Cassini, G. de la Hire, 
 Boulduc, Maraldi, De Chazelles (1694), Fautel de Lajai (1696), Sau- 
 veur, Guglielmini (1696), Fontenelle, Carbe, Tauvry (1697), Langlade 
 (1698), Lemery (1699). 
 
 2 There were at first neither Cartesians nor Jesuits among them. 
 This may be the reason why Thevenot, a Cartesian, was asked to join 
 only in 1683. 
 
 ' La Grande Encyclopidie. * Duhamel, op. cit., p. 5. 
 
THE AC AD £M IE DES SCIENCES lye^ 
 
 possibility of plagiarism, and secure due credit to the in- 
 ventor/ Strangers could only come for the purpose of 
 showing some new thing — hence the scanty reports of the 
 sessions. The Pensionnaires received one thousand five hun- 
 dred livres from Colbert, and were to give all their time 
 to the society. Besides the King established a fund of 
 twelve thousand livres for expenses, instruments and new 
 inventions, and to supply the laboratory; thus giving the 
 necessary financial support. 
 
 v^The method of work of the French scientists was dif-j 
 ferent from that of the Royal Society. The experiments : 
 were chosen and discussed in advance and then performed 1 
 in the laboratory next to the library. The members 
 actually worked together; they did not do their work in 
 their homes, and bring reports or repeat experiments in 
 the sessions.^^ In the laboratories the experimenting and 
 observations were jointly made,' hence most of the work 
 was reported as the joint product of three or four work- 
 ers; discussions in regard to results obtained through 
 collective experiments and simultaneous researches were 
 a feature of the meetings. About these sessions we find it 
 stated that one experiment at least was exhibited ; * that 
 they were devoted to one question, which often remained 
 on the docket for several weeks; that each difficulty 
 was weighed and discussed, and experiments to settle op- 
 posing views were made. Such sessions were always full 
 of interest, if not of great benefit to science." 
 
 1 Duhamel, op. cit., pp. 6 sqq. 
 
 2 La Grande Encyclopedie, Academie des Sciences. 
 
 ^ Maury, A., L'Ancienne Academie des Sciences, p. 15. 
 
 * Bertrand, op. cit., p. 18. 
 
 ' Bertrand, op. cit, p. 31. How persistent the workers were at times 
 is shown by the fact that in 1669, for twenty successive Saturdays 
 (owing, says Duhamel, to the talkativeness of Duclos), they discussed 
 the same question of coagulation. 
 
176 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 The question of what line of work was to be pursued pre- 
 sented itself immediately. Duhamel has it, that from the 
 ' beginning'' the fact was emphasized that the inventions of 
 others should be tested, instead of confining the association's 
 attention to making new discoveries/*' Each academician 
 was asked to submit a program of work." It can be sur- 
 mised that the reports of the sixteen members were essen- 
 tially different — " quot capita tot senstis." 
 , The idea of Huygens, or rather of Bacon, of jointly com- 
 piling and amassing facts for one great work, which we do 
 not meet in the annals of the Royal Society, was carried out 
 in some instances by the academy, and gave rise to one of 
 its most successful achievements, its history of animals and 
 plants. Perrault, struck with the existing ignorance of the 
 nature of plants and animals, advised their systematic study 
 and description, with emphasis upon their different anatomi- 
 cal features.' He dissected a great many animals, especially 
 
 ' Duhamel, op. cit., p. 7. 
 
 ' Bertrand, op. cit., p. 8. The following was that of Huygens, surely 
 the one most carefully considered : 
 
 1. Experiments with vacuum and determination of the weight of air. 
 
 2. Examination of force of gunpowder. 
 
 3. Examination of force of water vapor. 
 
 4. Examination of force and swiftness of wind, and use for navi- 
 gation and machines. 
 
 5. Examination of laws of percussion. 
 
 " The main occupation and most useful of this assembly ought to be 
 to work up a Natural History after the design of Bacon. To 
 
 know what weight, heat, cold, magnetism, light, color is; of what 
 parts air, water, fire and other bodies be composed; what is the use of 
 respiration of animals ; how metals, stones, herbs grow ; of all this 
 nothing or very little is known, yet there is nothing the knowledge 
 of which would be more desirable or useful. Under each of these 
 headings the experiments are to be collected, not those rare or difficult, 
 but those most essential for the research. . Chemistry and dissec- 
 tion of animals are necessary, but ought to be employed only in so 
 far as they augment the Natural History. . " 
 
 • Ehihamel, op. cit., p. 10. In his program of work, he pointed out 
 
THE ACADSMIE DBS SCIENCES 
 
 177 
 
 the strange ones he could get from the menagerie of Ver- 
 sailles/ Such dissections were made with the greatest care. 
 It took three sessions to dissect the trunk of the elephant. 
 " He thus," says Daremberg, " advanced the physiology of 
 the senses and the study of animal mechanics, described the 
 peristaltic movement of the entrails, and rectified the idea of 
 the bile vessels of animals." Perrault was specially anxious 
 to make experiments with a view of dispelling absurd popu- 
 lar prejudices. He tested the chameleon — and found 
 no change of color; he experimented with the salamander 
 — and did not find it incombustible; he discovered that the 
 pelican did not nourish its young with blood — " thus sys- 
 tematically -he eradicated misconceptions," says Condorcet.'' 
 These researches were published as MSmoires pour servir 
 a I'Histoire Naturel des Animaux by the Royal Press, and 
 translated into English by order of the Royal Society." 
 The Preface to the book emphasizes the fact that this 
 type of work could have been done only by cooperation : 
 
 That which is most considerable in our Memoirs is that un- 
 
 that the uses of many parts of the body are not known and should be 
 investigated by dissection; that in botany they should observe with 
 the miscroscope the changes undergone by seeds; what the saps con- 
 tain, what salts are in the ash ; whether nutrition and growth in plants 
 are similar to those of animals. 
 
 ' Bertrand, op. cit., p. 14. The story goes that he was surprised by 
 the King at the dissection of an elephant, and could not at first be 
 found by his royal visitor, on account of the huge size of the dissected 
 object. 
 
 2 Condorcet, Eloges, Perrault. 
 
 3 "The Natural History of Animals, Containing the anatomical de- 
 scription of several Creatures, dissected by the Royal Academy of 
 Science at Paris, wherein the Construction, Fabrick and genuine use 
 of the Parts are exactly and finely delineated in Copper plates and the 
 whole enriched with many curious Physical and no less useful Ana- 
 tomical Remarks, being one of the most considerable productions of 
 that Academy. (London, 1702." 
 
178 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 blemishable evidence of certain and acknowledged verity. For 
 they are not the work of one private person, who may suffer 
 himself to be prevailed upon by his own opinion; who can 
 hardly perceive what contradicts his first conceptions . . . 
 these memoirs contain only matter of fact, verified by whole 
 society. 
 
 Another work which represented the joint effort of many 
 members was the Memoires pour servir a I'Histoire des 
 Plantes, published by Duclos, Perrault, Gallois, Bourdelin, 
 Dodart and Borelli. How meager the botanical knowledge 
 was, with which the academy started, can best be proved 
 by some of the botanical questions of Perrault: 
 
 Is it true that a plant can reproduce itself of salts taken 
 from its ash? 
 
 Does the earth reproduce plants by its own fecundity, with- 
 out seed? 
 
 Does there exist in plants as in animals a soul which causes 
 its movements — ^is it the root-? 
 
 Are there sympathies and antipathies among plants? 
 
 Great efforts were made by Dodard to examine plants 
 chemically. He tirelessly distilled saps, extracted oils, but 
 as he threw away the ash as caput mortuum, he arrived 
 at the same analysis for most diverse vegetation ! ^ A close 
 study was made by Mariotte, Perrault and Duclos to dis- 
 cover whether something similar to the circulation of the 
 blood could be found in the flow of the sap of plants. The 
 volume which resulted from these researches was so well 
 received that three years later a second edition was needed. 
 
 A third instance of cooperative effort was a Treatise on 
 Mechanics.'' This was, however, of no scientific value. 
 
 ^ Maury, op. cit., p. 16. 
 ^ Bertrand, op. cit., p. 13. 
 
THE AC AD RM IE DES SCIENCES 
 
 179 
 
 Yet it would be an utter mistake to assume that the acad- 
 emicians in these early years carefully planned a series of 
 investigations for building up systematically the various 
 branches of science; a few instances of such contributions 
 have been selected to show the possibility of the develop- 
 ment of such a method. 
 
 To turn now to the other most distinctive feature of the 
 academy's first years we find that astronomical research was, 
 from the first, of great interest to the academicians, and 
 that soon after the establishment of the Academy the as- 
 tronomers met in the garden of the King's library in order 
 to make observations in common. Within one year, at the 
 request of Auzout and Picard,^ the corner-stone of the ob- 
 servatory of Paris was laid,^ and put into the complete 
 charge of the Academy.' The phase of work connected 
 with this observatory is one of the most notable in the his- 
 tory of the Academie des Sciences. Upon the advice of 
 Auzout and Picard, Cassini was called from Italy in 1669 
 to fill the post of head astronomer, and he and his family 
 were destined to make the Paris observatory the foremost 
 in the world.* 
 
 1 In 1664 Auzout and Picard had written to Louis XIV saying : " It 
 is a misfortune that there does not exist in Paris, nor anywhere in 
 your kingdom, an instrument with which I can determine precisely 
 the height of the celestial pole." Wolf, op. cit., p. 449. 
 
 Birch, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, ii, p. 237. Oldenburg 
 claimed that Auzout, on reading Sprat's History 'of the Royal Society, 
 asked for new astronomical instruments, which would be an interest- 
 ing instance of the interaction among the societies. 
 
 2 Perrault designed the observatory, with more consideration, it is 
 said, of architectural beauty than for its adaptation to astronomical 
 observations. Bertrand, op. cit., p. 22. 
 
 * It is to be observed that while Louis XIV put the observatory di- 
 rectly into the charge of his academy, the Greenwich Observatory 
 (167s) was a foundation apart from the Royal Society. 
 
 * Cassini himself is an interesting type of the seventeenth century 
 
l8o THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 J ' There was another type of scientific enterprise which the 
 Academie des Sciences could afiford to undertake, but which 
 was never within the means of the Royal Society. Within 
 the first years of its existence, it sent out two scientific ex- 
 peditions. ^ ne was to Uranienburg, where Picard wanted 
 to test T y tfa i tj ^Brahe's observations, and where he actu- 
 ally did find a very essential error in Tycho's calculations 
 of the meridian. From this expedition he brought back the 
 famous Danish astronomer, Roemer, to Paris.^ The other, 
 fraught with important consequences for science, was the 
 expedition to Cayenne, to make astronomical observations 
 near the equator. From there Richer reported the fact, 
 considered most puzzling, that the second-pendulum did 
 not vibrate at the same rate at Cayenne as in Paris. It 
 was surrhised that the difference was due to the tempera- 
 ture, but in time the spheroidal shape of the earth was re- 
 cognized." '^ 
 
 _Jn~Engiand an effort was made very soon after the 
 installation of the society, to issue periodic publications. 
 Such was not the case in France, "mainly because the 
 Journal des Savants, which for a while was edited (1665- 
 1674) by one of its members. Abbe Gallois, supplied the 
 outside world with the main occurrences in the Society.' 
 But the work of the early years has since been collected — 
 
 personality ; an astrologer, he is " cured " by studying comets, seeing 
 that even their movements are subject to laws, and hence cannot be 
 prophetic of catastrophies and calamities. The most spectacular of 
 his astronomical achievements was the discovery of four of the eight 
 moons of Saturn. Maury, op: cit., p. 22. 
 
 ^ Maury, op. cit., p. 21. 
 
 2 Ihid., p. 31. An account of these travels was published in 1693 in 
 a beautiful quarto volume: Recueil d'Observations faites en plusieures 
 Voyages par order de sa Majesty pour perfectionner I'Astronomie et la 
 Geographie — Par Messieurs de I'AcadSmie Royale des Sciences. 
 
 • See Chapter VII. 
 
THE ACAD&MIE DBS SCIENCES igi 
 
 to a great extent from the pages of the Journal des Sa- 
 vants — and published in eleven volumes of the Histoire de 
 VAcademie des Sciences depuis son etablissement en 1666 
 jusqu'a i6pp. Glancing through them, we get an impres- 
 sion of most varied scientific work/ The earliest efiforts 
 under the lead of Huygens, Picard and Auzout, dealt 
 with the perfecting of the telescope. Then we have experi- 
 ments turning on such questions as whether butter melts, 
 and plants grow in a vacuum. The discovery was made that 
 in a vacuum some air is exhaled — apparently what was con- 
 tained within the substances ; a fish in water was put under 
 the receiver and died because air was exhausted from its 
 swim-bladder. The use of the telescope for terrestrial pur- 
 poses, to measure angles was noted here for the first time. 
 
 Very interesting, from an historical point of view, were 
 the experiments Huygens and his assistant Papin, made 
 (1673) with the cylinder, using gunpowder as the motive 
 iforce, "pour avoir toujours a son commandement un agent 
 tres puissant et qui ne coute rien a entretenir comme font 
 les chevaux et les hommes." ^ Human dissections were 
 demonstrated by Pecquet and Perrault, and studied with 
 the greatest possible thoroughness. The question of the 
 transfusion of blood deeply stirred the company, and the 
 experiment was tried on dogs, until a decree of the Courts 
 forbidding this method put an end to these investigations.* 
 ^The chemical experiments of DuClos and Bourdelin, for 
 instance, in regard to the mineral salts contained in the 
 
 1 No attempt will be made at exact references, as the subjoined 
 matter is merely selected at random. 
 • Bosscha, op. cit., p. 35.' 
 
 ' See above, ch. iv. 
 
 A further evidence of the interest of the Academy in medical mat- 
 ters is, that Colbert gave the Academicians the right to visit incurables 
 at I'Hotel Dieu — but the nuns there did not permit it. Bertrand, op. 
 cit., p. 15. 
 
1 82 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 waters at places like Vichy, fill many folio pages of the vol- 
 umes. The mathematicians, Roberval, Mariotte, Perrault, 
 Frenicle studied the problems of free fall, and the periodicity 
 of the comet; Perrault studied the ear; Mariotte the phe- 
 nomena of air pressure, the theory of the colors in soap 
 bubbles and in the rainbow. The properties of phosphorus 
 were investigated and in 1682 the (Halley) comet was, of 
 course, observed with intense interest. In these annals 
 of the acadeniy during its first years, are some of the most 
 famous facts in the world of science, as for example, Mari- 
 otte's discovery of the blind spot in the eye; Roemer's cal- 
 culation of the velocity of light from the satellites of Jupi- 
 ter; Huygens's undulatory theory of light explaining the 
 double refraction observed in Iceland spar by Erasmus 
 Bartholin. 
 
 There is repeated mention of people not connected with 
 /the society sending or presenting in person books to be read 
 and experiments to be tested. 
 
 Turning from the volumes of the Histoire to activities 
 of the Academy not recorded there, we note that the Acad- 
 emy has the distinction of having published under its aus- 
 pices one of the epoch-making scientific books of the cen- 
 tury, namely, Huygens's Horologium,^ which contained the 
 description of the pendulum clock, second in importance in 
 astronomy only to the telescope. In the dedication ad- 
 dressed to Louis XIV, the author expressly thanked the 
 King for the opportunity which had been provided for his 
 researches by supplying him with a well-equipped obser- 
 vatory and with leisure for work.'' 
 
 1 Huygens' Opera, p. 19. The topics are the following : i. Pendu- 
 lum clock. 2. Fall of bodies. 3. Motion along cycloids. 4. Evolutes, 
 Centre of oscillation. 5. Centrifugal force. Cycloid (Evolute of 
 cycloid). 
 
 ' Other books were published by the Academy in its first decade, 
 and we hear of their being shown to the King in 1681. Duhamel, op. 
 cit., Preface. 
 
THE ACADEMIE DBS SCIENCES 183 
 
 It remains to emphasize the practical side of the efforts 
 of the first years of the Academy, and those activities 
 which kept it in contact with the world outside of its la- 
 boratories. In 1666 Auzout proposed as his program of 
 work, that a commission be appointed to investigate the 
 methods of artisans and to study their utensils and instru- 
 ments and such defects as they might have.^ Roberval, 
 Mariotte, Roemer and Blondel were much interested 
 in mechanics, and Blondel read, each week, to the com- 
 pany a description of a machine.^ A collection of tools, 
 machines, and instruments was started, and it became 
 customary for people making improvements and new in- 
 ventions to submit them to the Academy for its approval.* 
 Such tools and instruments as it examined and approved of, 
 were incorporated into its collection. Indeed the King or- 
 'dered them to occupy themselves mainly with a description 
 of mechanisms. Binot and Couplet started a catalogue * 
 which contained descriptions and pictures of an infinite 
 number of devices suggested by members of the Academy 
 and by outsiders ; cranes, cylinders, machines to raise water. 
 Perrault and Huygens are conspicuously represented 
 among the contributors, and many optical instruments and 
 models of Cassini are found in its pages. 
 
 Another task combining scientific investigation and prac- 
 tical usefulness was put upon the Academy. The King 
 ordered a map of France to be made, and this task fell to 
 
 ' Bertrand, op. cit., p. 8. 
 
 ' Duhamel, op. cit., p. 162. 
 
 ' Cusset, for instance, showed them a model of an engine to raise 
 water (1698) and we hear of Leibnitz submitting his calculating 
 machine to the society (1675). 
 
 * It was published as : Machines et Inventions approuvees par I'Aca- 
 dSmie Royale des Science, depuis son itdblissement jusqu' d present; 
 avec leur description. Dessinees et puhliees du consentiment de I'Aca- 
 demie. 7 vol. (ist vol. 1666-1701). 
 
1 84 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Picard and Philippe de la Hire, a new and most versatile 
 member of the Academy. Its execution necessitated De la 
 Hire's visiting Bretagne, Guienne and La Provence, from 
 which he brought back many objects and observations of 
 interest for the society.^ 
 
 During these years the personnel of the Academy had 
 somewhat changed. The accession of the two brilliant for- 
 eigners Roemer, from Denmark, and Cassini, from Italy, 
 has been mentioned; also the membei-ship of Philippe de 
 la Hire, who became one of the most prominent and char- 
 acteristic men of the assembly.^ There must however be 
 registered the loss of Huygens and Roemer due presumably 
 to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In 1682 several 
 foreign scientists joined, becoming only associate members 
 because of their unwillingness to expatriate themselves: 
 Viviani, Stenon, Hartsoecker and Tschirnhausen.' 
 
 /As was said above, with the death of Colbert ('1683) 
 there set in a period of decline for the Academy. Theman 
 who was instrumental in the revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes, Louvois,* took Colbert's place, a man who had no 
 sympathy with scientific work. For a while the academicians 
 were degraded into serving merely the personal curiosi- 
 ties of the King and State; Roberval's mathematics in 
 assisting games of chance, Mariotte's hydrostatics for the 
 Versailles cascades (1684-1713), Blondel's mechanics 
 mainly for the purposes of artillery. The whole tendency 
 
 1 Maury, op. cit., p. 25. 
 
 ' De la Hire was a mathematician and his work on Conies, con- 
 tinuing Desargues' researches, was almost as revolutionary as Des- 
 cartes's, and is in line with the most modern treatment of the subject. 
 Like Perrault, he was interested in the most diverse branches of learn- 
 ing, and very conspicuous as one of the founders of meterological 
 observations. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 23. * /did., p. 37. 
 
THE ACAD£MIE DBS SCIENCES 'Me^/ 
 
 was to make the work of the Academy more practical. In 
 1686 Louvois sent word that he did not wish so much inter- 
 est in " recherche curieuse, ce qui n'est qu'une pure curi- 
 osite ou qu'est pour ainsi dire un amusement des chimistes," 
 but attention to " recherche utile, celle qui peut avoir rap- 
 port au service du roi et de I'Etait." ^ 
 
 That the meetings of the Academie were from the begin- 
 ning far from peaceful, is brought out by all historians.^ In 
 fact they became the battle ground between Cartesianism, 
 hallowed by the conservative older element, especially sup- 
 ported on French soil on account of Chauvinistic reasons, 
 and anti-Cartesians, soon to be Newtonians.^ Cartesian- 
 ism was the issue between the two schools of physio- 
 logists, between the two classes of physicists, and in a 
 much graver form between the two classes of mathfmati- 
 cians. Rolle, De la Hire, Tschimhausen and Gallois re- 
 sisted the introduction of Newtonian calculus in opposition 
 to I'Hopital and Varignon, — a struggle ending after a battle 
 of five years in the victory of infinitesimal calculus.'' 
 Among the members petty jealousies had arisen, and 
 whereas the original purpose had been, as in the Cimento, 
 to publish the work of the academy as a unit, they had 
 drifted so far from this ideal that in 1688 they asked that a 
 commission be appointed to investigate the works to be pub- 
 lished by members, and determine whether the author was 
 guilty of plagiarism." 
 
 From 1 688- 1 69 1 there seem to have been not enough 
 
 ' Bertrand, op. cit., p. 40. 
 2 Maury) pp. 26 sqq. 
 
 • Charles Adams, in his Philosophie de F. Bacon (p. 342) says the 
 members of the academy believed they were Cartesians, but -were 
 Baconians, and used the same methods as the Royal Societj:.^ 
 
 - * Maury, op. cit., p. 64. 
 
 • Bertrand, op. cit., p. 45. 
 
l86 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 experiments to keep a two hours' session busy, and ac- 
 counts of the discussions show them to have been meagre. 
 Yet some matters may be of interest and worthy of note as 
 indicating the cosmopolitan range of the Academy, e. g., 
 the Jesuit Fathers sent in observations of the heavens from 
 China; the Siamese Ambassador brought a Siamese as- 
 tronomy which Cassini deciphered. In 1690 the ex-King, 
 James II, visited the observatory of Paris and discussed 
 Newton's idea of the spheroidal shape of the earth.^ 
 The fact that he was shown the place where machines and 
 burning mirrors were kept indicates the pride of the Society 
 in these possessions. 
 
 In these years, two men were appointed to the Acad- 
 emy who were especially to emphasize experimentation 
 along lines of chemistry.^ In 1686 Nicholas Lemery 
 (1645-1715) became a member, — to my mind, one of the 
 most interesting men of the period. The pupil of an apothe- 
 cary, really self-taught, he condemned the alchemistic 
 obscurities which clung about chemistry, and delighted in 
 teaching it in a simple, straightforward way, with ex- 
 periments, in his own room, " qui etait mains ime chambre 
 qu'une cave, et presque un autre magiqfie, eclaire de la 
 seule lueur des fourneaux." " So many people — even ladies 
 — attended these gatherings that there was hardly room for 
 the experiments. He gave up the Calvinistic religion to 
 join the work of the Academy. Here he conducted courses 
 in chemistry for large audiences of working people, the 
 only instance of teaching connected with the Academy I 
 find recorded. To Lemery is due in great part the love for 
 
 1 Bertrand, op. cit., p. 37. ^ Maury, op. cit., p. 40. 
 
 ' Fontenelle, £Ioges, Lemery. 
 
 He lived to see his book, Cours de Chymie, in its thirteenth edition 
 and translated into all the languages of Europe. " It is a practical 
 book, not dealing with theories, and sold," says Fontenelle, "just like 
 a novel or satire." 
 
THE AC AD BM IE DES SCIENCES 187 
 
 chemical experiment as such, the popularization of the 
 science, and bringing it within the reach of the average 
 student and man. 
 
 The other man was Homberg ' (1652-1715), a Dutch- 
 man born in Java, by profession a lawyer, who, "tired of the 
 arbitrary laws of man, looked for the laws of nature " and 
 was won to experimental science by the experiments of 
 Guericke. He visited many universities, worked in the 
 laboratories of Boyle, and studied medicine and anatomy 
 with Graff in Leyden. His reputation as a chemist brought 
 Tiim into relation with the Duke of Orleans,^ who drew 
 him to his chemical researches under the official title of 
 " physician." In 1691 Homberg was appointed director 
 of the chemical laboratories of the Academic des Sciences, 
 and was responsible for what was shown at the sessions, a 
 position somewhat like that of the curator of the Royal 
 Society.^ 
 
 The years 1692- 1699* form a separate chapter in the 
 
 1 Fontenelle, Sloges, Homburg. ^ See above, ch. ii. 
 
 ' Hamburg's experiments bore on questions of heat, magnetic decli- 
 nation, and the chemistry of plants, also he was deeply interested in 
 questions of alchemy. Haeser, op. cit, ii, p. 437. 
 
 * In this period the following prominent scientists joined the Acad- 
 emy: 
 
 L'Hopital, a mathematical genius, who died at the age of forty. 
 He was among the first to understand the vast importance of infini- 
 tesimal calculus, first interested and taught calculus to Huygens, and 
 wrote the first text-book on this subj ect. His extensive correspondence 
 with Huygens and iLeibnitz is of great importance. 
 
 Mery (1645-1722), prominent in the history of Physiology for 
 work on the ear, and circulation of blood in the foetus; also for the em- 
 phasis he laid on surgical teaching. 
 
 Littre, an indefatigable anatomist, who had in 1684 made more than 
 two hundred dissections. 
 
 Tournefort (1656-1708), a prominent botianist. He became head of 
 the Jardin des Plantes in 1683 ; traveled extensively in the Orient, and 
 is recognized as an important forerunner of Linnaeus. Maury, op. cit, 
 p. S. 
 
l88 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 history of the Academy; Pontchartrain, taking Louvois' 
 place, put the academy under his nephew, Bignon, a Mae- 
 cenas of science, whose interest in the academy culmin- 
 ated in its complete reorganization in 1699. In that year 
 the society received the constitution under which it was 
 to exist imtil its dissolution in 1793. Its statutes ^ in a 
 way represent what the experience of thirty-three years 
 had taught the body as the best line of cooperative work, 
 and thus, for us, are of more interest as a resume of past, 
 than as a beginning of future work. 
 
 -, The body was increased to fifty members : ten honorary 
 members ; twenty pensionnairs, the real workers, inhabitants 
 of Paris, and distributed through the various branches of 
 science as follows: three for Geometry, three for Astro- 
 nomy, three for Mechanics, three for Anatomy, three for 
 Chemistry, three for Botany, one Secretary and one Treas- 
 urer.^ Then there were to be twenty associates, twelve resi- 
 dent in Paris — ^two atached to each branch of science — and 
 eight ' foreigners. Besides, provision was made for 
 twenty pupils, each attached to one pensionnair. 
 
 I shall quote some of the most characteristic statutes of 
 the newly organized Academy: 
 
 ' Published in Oeuvres de Fontenelle Sloges, i, pp. 63-72. 
 
 2 The pensionnairs nominated were in great part the Academicians 
 of previous years : 
 
 Mathematics, Gallois, Rolle, Varignon; Astronomy, Cassini, De la 
 Hire, Le Fevre; Mechanics, Filleau des Billets, Jangeon; Anatomy, 
 Duhamel, Du Verney, Mery; Chemistry, Bourdelin, Romberg, Boul- 
 duc; Botany, Dodart, Marchant, Tournefort; Secretary, Fontenelle; 
 Treasurer, Couplet. Lemery was an Associate in Chemistry. 
 
 ' The eight foreign associate members were: Leibnitz, Tschimhausen, 
 Guglielmini, Hartsoecker, Bernouilli (Jacob and Johann), 'Roemer, 
 Newton, Viviani (later). Chamberlayne, Joseph, The Lives of the 
 French, Italian and German Philosophers, late Members of the Royal 
 Academy of Sciences, p. 99. 
 
THE ACADRMIE DES SCIENCES 189 
 
 XII. ^ No man who is a priest ... or belongs to any re- 
 ligious order, shall be proposed, except as an honorary mem- 
 ber. 
 
 XIII. Only those persons shall be proposed to the King 
 for the place of pensionnair or associate that have distin- 
 guished themselves by some considerable published work, by 
 some course whereby they made a reputation in the science 
 they professed, or by some machine of their own invention, 
 or by some particular discovery. 
 
 XX. It having been found by experience that there are dis- 
 advantages in the tasks to which the academicians apply them- 
 selves in common, each one shall choose a particular object 
 for his studies, and by the account he shall give of it in the 
 meeting, he shall endeavor to enrich the Academy by his dis- 
 coveries and improve himself at the same time. 
 
 XXII. Though each academician be obliged to apply him- 
 self to a particular science . . . everyone shall be exhorted to 
 extend his inquiries into all that may be useful and curious in 
 the several parts of Mathematics, in the different divisions of 
 the Arts, or in that which may in any way relate to the knowl- 
 edge of Natural History and Philosophy. 
 
 XXIII. At every meeting, two at least of the pensionnairs 
 shall be obliged to bring some of their particular observa- 
 tions. . . . 
 
 XXIV. All observations . . . shall be . delivered in 
 writing to the Secretary. 
 
 XXV. All experiments reported shall be repeated if possible 
 at the meeting, otherwise at home in private, with some of the 
 academicians present. 
 
 XXVII. Correspondence with learned men is to be cul- 
 tivated. 
 
 XXVIII. The Academy shall appoint some of their mem- 
 bers to read all valuable articles that appear on Physics and 
 Mathematics. 
 
 XXIX. The Academy shall repeat all considerable experi- 
 
 ' The numbers refer to the statutes. 
 
I go 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 ments and note . . . conformity or difference between their 
 own and other observations. 
 
 XXX. If a member proposes to print a book, it shall be . . . 
 submitted to the examination of the Academy. . . . None of 
 the members shall put the title of Academician at the head 
 of any work, unless it has first been approved by the Academy. 
 
 XXXI. The Academy shall examine ... all machines for 
 which patent and privilege is desired by inventors . . . and 
 inventors of such as have been approved shall be obliged to 
 leave a model in the Academy. 
 
 XXXV. The public shall be admitted to two open meetings. 
 
 XLVII, His Majesty will continue to pay ordinary pensions. 
 
 XLVIII. . . . the King will continue to allow necessary 
 charges for making the several experiments and discoveries of 
 every academician. 
 
 The proceedings of the Academy, comprising the entire 
 Memoirs of the Scientists, were to be published yearly; 
 thenceforth this Society had its periodic publication like 
 ^the Royal Society. 
 
 The Academy received new apartments in the Louvre, 
 where, after the reorganization in February, 1699, it was 
 formally opened in public session on April 29, 1699. 
 Bignon in opening, well characterized the task of the 
 Academy of Sciences: 
 
 L'Acadende FranfOiise cuvait pour son portage I' art de la parole 
 avec tons ses agrements, mais I'AcadSmie des Sciences n'aspi- 
 rait qu'a la virite et souvent la verite la plus skche et la 
 plus absfraite, qu'il lui sufHsait que le vrai put etre utile et 
 qu'elle le dispensait d'etre agreable.^ 
 
 Fontenelle prefaced the first volume of his history of the 
 academy since its reorganization with an essay somewhat 
 
 ' Maindron, Revue Scientifique, 1881, p. 689, quoting Le Mercure 
 Galant. 
 
THE ACADSMIE DBS SCIENCES 
 
 191 
 
 prophetic in its contents, which clearly shows that the 
 thirty-three years of labor of the academicians were felt 
 to be of great value to science and to men in general. He 
 feels convinced that this new science, studied by such a small 
 number and hardly noticed abroad, is destined to give 
 great advantages to innumerable people; better anatomy 
 has given rise to more skillful surgery, and will do 
 so to a greater extent in the future; cycloids, though first 
 studied for " vanity," have given the pendulum clock to the 
 world (Huygens) ; comparative anatomy will ultimately 
 help man, since in the mechanism of one species of creatures 
 those of others are fully disclosed; the collection of 
 mathematical and physical truths is essential, on the mere 
 chance that something will come of it — " il est toujours 
 utile de penser meme sur des sujets inutiles." ^ Then re- 
 viewing what science has already accomplished, Fontenelle 
 marvels at the telescope and the air pump, at the "fecondite 
 sans borne " of physics. He concludes that the numerous 
 observations and experiments necessary for true advance- 
 ment are impossible through individual effort and can be 
 accomplished only through co-operation, such as is repre- 
 sented by the academy. 
 
 Just what did the establishment of the Academic des 
 Sciences do for the progress of science? Through the liber- 
 ality of the royal treasury great laboratory facilities were 
 established, especially, a model observatory, the first 
 worthy home for the study of astronomy, destined 
 to be copied by other nations. Leisure was secured to a 
 number of gifted men to devote that time to experiment 
 which otherwise would have had to be spent in gaining a 
 
 ' Contrasting history and science, Fontenelle says : " History is but 
 the spectacle of perpetual revolutions in human affairs; let us rather 
 take an interest in the movements which control all the forces of 
 nature." 
 
192 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 livelihood, and an opportunity was given to certain great 
 scientists such as Huygens, Mariotte, and Pecquet, to reach 
 other lesser minds and fertilize their thoughts and methods. 
 
 The work accomplished by joint experiments was un- 
 doubtedly of some significance, but as a whole, the method 
 of working together had proved a failure, and the greatest 
 things were accomplished by individual discoveries. The 
 fact that such men as Huygens withdrew, shows disap- 
 proval of that method, and this is further emphasized by 
 the enactment in 1699 of the statute discontinuing joint 
 work. But the scientific method of exactness was highly 
 advanced; astronomical instruments were immensely im- 
 proved ; previously such painstaking labor as Picard's had 
 not been approached. The chemists had fostered love 
 and interest in their experiments; the anatomists had won 
 even from the geometricians sympathetic interest for their 
 researches. The co-operation of the physicists with the phy- 
 sicians resulted, according to Daremberg, in the latter 
 often adopting physical methods in their study of organ- 
 isms, a proof of a beneficent exchange of ideas. The 
 fact that the academical sessions were battlegrounds of 
 conflicting opinions • can be no cause of regret, as these 
 battles had to be fought, and in the relatively enlightened 
 members of the society the new ideas found better cham- 
 pions than they might have found in the outside world. 
 
 Comparing this sketch of the Academic des Sciences with 
 that of its sister society in England, it must of course be 
 borne in mind that, while through Newton's work the 
 Royal Society had reached its zenith by 1700, the Acad- 
 emy was but in its infancy, and its greatest men fill the an- 
 nals of its work during 'the eighteenth century, mainly 
 1 750-1800. »,«- 
 
 One most important feature must not be lost sight of. 
 Owing to the predominating political position of France 
 
THE ACADSMIE DBS SCIENCES 
 
 193 
 
 on the continent, and to the fact that she was, in the 
 " Siecle de Louis XIV," the Kulturtrager of the con- 
 tinent ; that her language and her manners were the model 
 of the " correct," her Academy came to partake of the 
 quality of " perfection " attached by the next century to 
 things sprung from French soil; it became the model of 
 many other academies — much as the Court of Versailles 
 was the model of other courts in the eighteenth century, 
 and therefore potentially it must be given credit for a great 
 deal that the next century was to accomplish by means of 
 other learned societies. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 German Scientific Societies 
 
 As we turn to the learned societies in Germany we must 
 note some features which distinguish the situation there 
 from that in Italy, England and France. 
 
 Science seems somewhat more backward in Germany 
 than in the other countries. Manual skill, the essential 
 element in laboratory work, and instrument making, had 
 been more highly developed at Niimberg than in other 
 parts of Europe ; ^ but the application of this skill along 
 scientific lines had not yet taken place to any great extent ; 
 and it must be admitted that except for Kepler and 
 Guericke, the greatest scientists throughout the seventeenth 
 century belonged to other countries. Medical science was 
 at a low ebb, and what knowledge there was came from 
 Padua, Montpellier and Leyden. Interested amateur scien- 
 tists — other than alchemists — are less often met on German 
 soil than in the other countries, due, perhaps, to the innate 
 Schwerfdlligkeit of the Gennan, which is never com- 
 patible with the versatility of the amateur. 
 
 The backward condition of Germany is best illustrated 
 by the low state of development of its vernacular. While 
 in France and England great writers had written or were 
 writing in the vernacular at this period, in Germany inter- 
 est in the mother tongue was just beginning and Latin was 
 still without exception the language of the learned ; so that 
 
 1 Joh. Neudoeffer, Nachrichten von den Nurnberger Kunstlern so 
 inner halb loo Jahren in Nurnberg gelebt haben 1546, Fortsetzung von 
 Gulden, 1660. 
 194 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 195 
 
 in so far as the spread of scientific interest among the 
 people depended upon the vernacular, it would necessarily 
 be less rapid in Gemiany than in the other countries. This 
 reacted upon the interest in science in still another way. 
 Much of the enthusiasm which in other countries was be- 
 stowed upon the cultivation of experiment, was given, in 
 Germany, at this time to the cultivation and development 
 of the German tongue. The " Sprachgesellschaften " , as 
 for instance, the " Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft," ^ ab- 
 sorbed the very material from which the fellows of the 
 Royal Society were recruited. So that while in Italy 
 and France the societies interested in language were strictly 
 differentiated from those that were working in science, in 
 Germany the one appeared as a preparatory stage for the 
 other. These " Sprachgesellschaften " were at the height 
 of their activity in the second half of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury ; and the man who stood out as champion of the learned 
 societies in Germany, Leibnitz, conceived of their work 
 as an integral part of his scheme. Yet we shall see that in 
 spite of these adverse factors, Germany plays a significant 
 part in the history of the learned societies during the time 
 we are considering. 
 
 Of the several German learned societies we shall mention 
 first the Societas Ereunetica, a society founded in 1622 by 
 Joachim Jungius, a most interesting personality ; second, the 
 Academia Naturae Curio sorum, a society of physicians only, 
 recognized and supported by the imperial power; third, 
 the Collegium Curiosum sive Experimentale, which was 
 the creation of one man, and represented little more than 
 the attempt of an enthusiastic teacher to gather students 
 and friends for scientific work and discussion; fourth, the 
 Berlin Academy, the only one which in time was destined 
 
 • Barthold, F. W., Geschichte der Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft. 
 
196 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 to rank with the societies in France and England. As this 
 society was founded in 1700, it falls practically outside of 
 the present investigation; through the personality of its 
 founder Leibnitz however, it is closely connected with the 
 seventeenth century; hence Leibnitz, his multiform activi- 
 ties and his attitude toward learned societies, will be taken 
 up, and it will become evident- that through his efforts not 
 only the foundation of the Berlin Academy, but also the 
 origin of three other societies, namely, those of Dresden, 
 St. Petersburg and Vienna, can be traced to the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 The Societas Ereunetica was established at Rostock in 
 1622. Its founder, Joachim Jungius, (1587-1657) was a 
 man whom Leibnitz classes with Galileo and Pascal.^ It 
 was granted to him to understand the deficiencies of his own 
 time, and to point out those ways of improvement which 
 the future, after a laborious process of evolution, ultimately 
 adopted. In his early years he belonged to an interesting 
 group of pedagogic reformers, of whom Ratichius (R'atke) 
 (1571-1635) was the leading spirit.^ Their central idea 
 was thus expressed by Jungius : 
 
 It is the absolute truth that all arts and sciences, as, for ex- 
 ample, the art of government, knowledge of weights and meas- 
 ures, of medicine, astronomy, architecture, fortification, can 
 much more easily, comfortably, correctly, perfectly and ex- 
 plicitly be taught and promulgated in German than in Greek, 
 Latin or Arabic* 
 
 ' Guhrauer, G. E., Joachim Jungius und Sein Zeitalter, p. 141. 
 
 • Ibid., p. 26. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 30. Compare ihid., pp. 36 sqq. This emphasis on the ver- 
 nacular, coupled with other reforms, attracted much attention in Ger- 
 many. It influenced among others the famous reformer Commenius. 
 Augsburg merchants wanted a school started along these lines, but 
 Ratke seems to have lacked the executive ability necessary to organize 
 such an enterprise. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 197 
 
 From enthusiasm for school reform Jungius turned to 
 the study of natural sciences. He first studied pharmacy 
 at Rostock/ afterwards went to Padua and Pisa,^ where he 
 studied under Cesalpino. While Jungius was interested in 
 physics, mineralogy and zoology, his chief interest lay in 
 the fields of botany and entomology.' 
 
 How did jungius come to plan the formation of a 
 learned society? One might infer that the reports of the 
 Accademia dei Lincei suggested it ; but Jungius' biographer 
 points out that in a book of Valentin Andreae, as early as 
 1619,^ five years before the publication of the New Atlantis, 
 a suggestion was made for founding an academy or college 
 of natural sciences and the arts and crafts closely con- 
 nected therewith. It was due then perhaps to Andreae's 
 suggestion that Jungius, in 1622, founded his society.' He 
 summoned disciples in the following manner : " Scholars 
 in North Germany," he wrote, " have found a method of 
 proving the falsity of Jesuitical teachings; they can show 
 the only correct way of investigating natural phenomena, 
 but inasmuch as this way is costly (on account of the ob- 
 vious need of instruments) they need the help and support 
 of all; especially of the rich, who are solicitous for the 
 truth." " The purpose of the society, as stated, was to free 
 all arts and sciences, which depend on reason and experi- 
 ment, from sophistry, and reduce them to demonstration; 
 
 1 Guhrauer, G. E., op. cit., p. 45. 
 
 * Ibid., p. so. 
 
 ' He was the author of important botanical works, which were well 
 known and published by the Royal Society. Sachs, op. cit., p. 58. 
 
 * The title of Andreae's work is Reipublicae Christianapolitanae 
 descriptio. Herder rediscovered Andreae, and considered him the 
 Bacon of Germany. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 69. 
 
 * Note the appeal to a lay public. Guhrauer, op. cit., pp. 70 sqq. 
 
198 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 to impart them through proper instruction and increase 
 them through happy invention. Thus we have a society 
 evidently designed to perform experiments. Secrecy was 
 enjoined upon its members.^ The motto of the Ereunetica 
 was truly Baconian : " Per inductionem et experimentum 
 omnia." The academy was short-lived; no traces of it are 
 found later than 1624. Its main interest lies in its early 
 date and the personality of its founder,^ of whom Goethe 
 said : " If people had followed the advice of Jungius as to 
 methods of study, the world would have reached, a hun- 
 dred years earlier, that point at which it is to-day." ' 
 
 The second learned society in Germany which we pro- 
 pose to notice is the Collegium Naturae Curiosorum. It 
 antedates both the Cimento and the Royal Society, as it 
 was founded in the year 165 1, and it is still in existence to- 
 day. It was not a society in the usual sense of the word, 
 not a body holding joint meetings at which experiments 
 were shown, or business transacted. It was merely a 
 society of physicians, which had its headquarters wherever 
 
 ' Among these was one physician, one senator, and one mathema- 
 tician. 
 
 '• Jungius later became professor of Mathematics at Liibeck, and con- 
 tinued to advocate experimental methods. He preached experimental 
 Physics and Mathematics as opposed to Astrology (Guhrauer, op. cit., 
 pp. 79 sqq.) ; similarly when later he became rector of the Johannaeum, 
 the high school in Hamburg, he insisted on modern methods of teach- 
 ing in contrast to the methods prevailing in universities. One of his 
 pupils wrote : " If the students of the Gymnasium at Hamburg could 
 and would take to heart the treasures heaped upon them, treasures for 
 which people here have lost all appreciation and desire, there would 
 come forth from Hamburg a gleam of science even as the Greeks 
 came forth from the Trojan horse." (/6trf., p. 125.) 
 
 • " Leben und Verdienste des Doctors Joachim Jungius!' Goethe's 
 Nachgelassene Schriften, published with Guhrauer's op. cit., (appen- 
 dix). 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 199 
 
 its president happened to be located. Its main function 
 was the publication of a scientific paper containing the ori- 
 ginal researches of its members and other investigations 
 of importance to medicine. It is apparent that in type of 
 membership, and in method, it differed fundamentally from 
 the Cimento or the English or French societies, and re- 
 sembled them only in a general way, as dealing with scien- 
 tific questions, and in being officially recognized by the 
 Emperor. 
 
 Its history is told in its publications ^ and again by 
 Biichner^ (i755), one of its presidents. Dr. Lorenz 
 Bausch, Stadtphysicus of Schweinfurt, had studied medi- 
 cine for two years in Italy and was much impressed with 
 the work of the Accademia dei Lincei. He had a museum 
 of " rarities," was learned in chemistry and botany, and 
 had read Bacon's books. In the fall of 165 1 he proposed * 
 to the physicians of Schweinfurt to form an academy. 
 This plan was accepted and in January, 1652, a society 
 was established, consisting of only four members.* 
 
 The society's aim was, in the words of the program, 
 " the advancement of medicine and pharmacy through ob- 
 servation; by presenting observations in monographs, and 
 communicating them to the members for correction and 
 further elaboration." ° The most important points of the 
 
 ^ Academia Caesarea Leopoldina Carolina Germanica Naturae Curio- 
 sorum Miscellanea Curiosa sive Ephemeridum Medico Physicorum 
 Germanorum (referred to as Miscellanea Curiosa'). 
 
 2 Biichner, Andrea Elia, Academiae Naturae Curiosorum Historia. 
 All documents are collected in Btichner, A. E., op. cit., vol. ii : Sacrae 
 Caesareae Majestatis Mandato et Privilegio Leges. 
 
 ' Biichner, op. cit., pp. 19-24. 
 
 * Neigebaur, J. D. F., Geschichte der Kaiserlich. Leap. Carolin. 
 Deutschen Akad^mie der Naturforscher, pp. 17 sq. 
 
 • Biichner, op. cit., pp. 19 sqq. 
 
200 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 plan of campaign were, that the president assign a topic to 
 each member ; that this topic be changed each term ; that the 
 truth of all statements be definitely demonstrated. 
 
 Little is known of the society's activities during its first 
 ten years/ In 1661 Dr. Philipp Jacob Sachs von Lowen- 
 haimb, the Stadtphysicus of Breslau joined them, a man 
 of information and prominence. This established a con- 
 nection with an important commercial city and the society 
 gained in reputation, so that in 1662 it counted twenty- 
 five members.^ It was proposed to publish a volume of its 
 work in 1662,^ but the diflficulties seemed insurmountable 
 and until 1670 only some monographs, mainly of Sachs 
 and Bausch appeared. 
 
 In 1670, through Sachs's activity (Bausch died in 1665)* 
 the society was enlarged and fundamentally reorganized. 
 A letter ° was sent broadcast to physicians, inviting them to 
 join, and specimen observations were published to indicate 
 the scope of the work, magnum opus aggredimur nee quae 
 quoque virihus hisce conveniant. The statutes ° of the so- 
 ciety were, as a whole not changed. Membership was ex- 
 tended to " doctors, licentiati or those approximating them 
 in learning," ' but the society remained eminently an as- 
 sociation of German medical men.* Each member was re- 
 
 • Leibnitz often referred to its members, but criticized them for col- 
 lecting from books rather than from observation. Foucher de Careil, 
 Leibnitz, CEuvres de, vii, p. 80. 
 
 • Buchner, op. cit., p. 57. 
 
 ' Biichner, op. cit., p. 414. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 63. 
 
 ^ Miscellanea Curiosa, vol. i, passim. 
 
 • For laws, see Miscellanea Curiosa, vol. ii. 
 ' Neigebaur, op. cit., p. 17. 
 
 ' One professor of eloquence had joined in 1677, and there were 
 four foreign members by 1693. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 201 
 
 quired to choose a subject of investigation, or have it 
 chosen for him. This topic was later printed after his 
 name, and formed a most essential feature of his member- 
 ship. The statutes directed that observations, experiments, 
 inventions, problems, communications, should be collected 
 into a volume with the name of the author, and this should 
 be published yearly under the title Ephemerides. A di- 
 rector was appointed, in order that there might be a per- 
 manent officer to whom scientists could send their work. 
 Soon the first volume of the Miscellanea Curiosa sive Ephe- 
 meridum medico physicorum Ger manor um was published.^ 
 In its preface an appeal was made to physicians to devote 
 themselves to science, for they lived in a time when even 
 princes, the Medici, Louis XIV and Charles II, were 
 actively interested. The Philosophical Transactions were 
 to serve as the model of the Miscellanea but they were to 
 differ from the English publication in dealing only with 
 matters which related to medicine, namely, physics, botany, 
 anatomy, pathology and chemistry. The editors explained 
 the need of the undertaking they proposed, on the ground 
 that the spread of beneficial knowledge was slow and that 
 unless some such method as a medical paper were devised 
 it was impossible to reach the busy man. As a symbol of 
 the society the ship Argo was adopted, the golden fleece 
 signifying scientific truth.^ 
 
 The first volume contained papers by Sachs and Bausch. 
 Twelve of the twenty-seven contributions were on Zoology.' 
 
 ' Neigebaur, op. cit., p. 12. It was the work of Sachs and Lucas 
 Schroekh, the first to hold the important oflSce of Director of the Mis- 
 cellanea. 
 
 ' Miscellanea Curiosa, vol. i, pp. 2 sqq. 
 
 ' Evidently great care had been spent upon these zoological articles, 
 although Carus {op. cit, p. 412) thinks that they were below the level 
 of the contemporaneous publications of other countries. 
 
202 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 There was much talk, and many pictures, of monstrosities, 
 and abnormalities, in the spirit of the time. According to 
 the Miscellanea, this first volume caused great satisfaction 
 in the learned world ; " cum curiosi academici viderent 
 ipsorum novis inceptis conspirare eruditorum plurimorum 
 consensum. . ." ' It attracted at once the attention of the 
 Royal Society, and Oldenburg wrote to the editors : " we 
 do not doubt that Germany, ever fertile in learned men, will 
 greatly add to the store of knowledge." He moreover ex- 
 pressed his gratification that the Philosophical Transactions 
 had served as a model. ^ 
 
 As to the succeeding volumes, we notice that many con- 
 tain translations of works from the vernacular into the 
 Latin tongue.^ There are articles by Leibnitz, by Christo- 
 pher Sturm on Borelli's De Motu Animalium,^ etc. As to 
 their general tone, there is a great deal of flattery of the Em- 
 peror in each introduction. German sentimentalism on the 
 death of the presidents is expressed in Latin verse or, as in 
 the case of Fehr, in sixty pages of prose.' There is a 
 
 ' Miscellanea Curiosa, ii, Preface. Cardinal Leopold de Medici 
 thanked the editors especially for the publication of Francisco Redi's 
 work; the Jesuit experimenter, Athanasius Kircher, and the famous 
 Danish anatomist, Thomas Bartholinus, expressed the unusual interest 
 in the publication. The volume went into a second edition in 1684. 
 Neigebaur, op. cit., p. 12. 
 
 ' We read, " Dr. Croone in May, 1670, produced a printed paper 
 published at Leipzig in imitation of the Journal des Sgavans, and the 
 Philosophical Transactions, viz., Miscellanea Curiosa^ Oldenburg, on 
 February 16, 1671, gave an account of it. (Birch, History of the 
 Royal Society, ii, pp. 437 sqq.) It was found that some observations 
 contained in the work were considerable, and that its compilers were 
 to be encouraged. 
 
 • Works of Grew {Miscellanea Curiosa, vii, p. 330), Boyle, Helmont, 
 Delia Porta, Paracelsus {ibid., xxv, p. 2). 
 
 * Miscellanea Curiosa, ix, x. 
 ° Ihid.. XV. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 203 
 
 lively tone of exultation in the frequent reviews of the 
 work being accomplished. Quot herbas decerpimus, quot 
 miner alia scrutamur, quot viventium inquirimus varietOr- 
 tem et viscera, tot hymnos Deo canimus. They add apolo- 
 getically : " We seem to applaud ourselves because nature 
 from its horn of plenty has poured the flood of its secrets 
 upon us." ^ 
 
 How the attention of the Emperor was turned to the 
 society is not clear. The bubonic plague which then 
 raged, had made the art of medicine seem even more im- 
 portant than before, and given prominence to the efforts 
 of physicians who tried to widen its field of efficiency. By 
 1677 the emperor accepted the role of patron, and there- 
 after the society was reorganized as Sacri Romani Impera- 
 toris Acadeniia Naturae Curiosorum. The statutes re- 
 mained almost unchanged but the new significant motto 
 " numqiiam otiosus " was adopted. From now on it grew 
 steadily in importance and in numbers.'' Its later presi- 
 dents came from Niimberg and Augsburg, bringing it into 
 essential contact with large commercial cities. By 1687 
 the Academy adopted the name Academia Caesar ea Leo- 
 poldina, and its privileges were still further extended by the 
 emperor.^ It had, for example, officially the same rank as 
 the University of Vienna, full license to print, and copy- 
 right privileges.* 
 
 But the society was confronted with many obstacles. 
 First of all there was financial embarrassment ° and very 
 
 1 Miscellanea Curiosa, viii, preface. 
 
 2 Ibid., vol. xiii. By 1683 the membership was 159. 
 
 • The president and director of the Miscellanea were raised to the 
 dignity of Count Palatinate, with the right of legitimizing illegal chil- 
 dren, sanctioning adoptions, etc. Neigebaur, op. cit., p. 3. 
 
 * Neigebaur, op. cit., p. 11. 
 
 ' Miscellanea Curiosa, preface, vol. viii. 
 
204 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 little aid from the emperor. The imperial protection 
 moreover which appeared so promising did not count for 
 much in this time of declining imperial power. The work- 
 ers were located at widely distant places and had to depend 
 on written communications. The lay public could not be 
 interested in publications as highly specialized as the Miscel- 
 lanea] in fact, Prutz well says that "the paper might have 
 gone on a hundred years, without the general reading public 
 learning of its contents, or even of its existence." ^ Then 
 there was continual discord and jealousy among the 
 members. Yet in spite of all these difficulties the society 
 persisted. Undoubtedly the Miscellanea Naturae Curio- 
 sorum take a high rank among the publications of the end 
 of the seventeenth century; they are referred to in the 
 Philosophic Transactions, in the Journal des Savants and 
 in Bayle's Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres." Bayle 
 praised the " Melanges Curieux " ^ as showing the indefati- 
 gable industry, invention and genius of the Germans; and 
 pointed out that this publication was really a rival of the 
 academies. 
 
 Several features of the work of this Academia Naturae 
 Curiosorum must be commended. In comparison with the 
 English and French societies, it represented a tendency 
 toward greater specialization. It maintained that medical 
 science must necessarily rest upon a basis of scientific ex- 
 periment. In insisting upon original work by each mem- 
 ber it created a body of men seriously engaged in experi- 
 mental work. It adopted one of the most essential features 
 of other learned societies — that of digesting and spreading 
 
 ' Prutz, R., Geschichte des Deutschen Journalismus, p. 275. 
 
 2 Pierre Bayle, Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres, Oct., 1685, 
 P- 389. 
 
 ^ Bayle's translation of their name. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 205 
 
 the new knowledge which was rapidly accumulated. 
 Through its publication, it brought the news of progress 
 in medical science to many a physician whom it would not 
 have reached. All this it did, apparently, with a minimum 
 of organization and official machinery. 
 
 But it in no way created opportunities and means of ori- 
 ginal work, and in the last analysis it seemed bent on col- 
 lecting the work of men who had scientific interests, rather 
 than on creating such interest or calling it forth. In short, 
 it admirably performed the function of editor of a learned 
 paper, but, except in name, hardly deserves to be classed as 
 a learned society. 
 
 The next scientific society which presents itself in 
 Germany, the Collegium Curiosum sive Experimentale 
 was entirely dififerent from those previously consid- 
 ered. At the University of Altdorf, which stands out as 
 the one progressive German university,'' Christopher Sturm 
 held for thirty-four years the position of Professor of 
 Mathematics and Physics. He had been present at sessions 
 of the Cimento ^ and had gained a knowledge of their work 
 and methods; he had studied in Holland and England, 
 kept up a correspondence with learned men, for example 
 with Halley and Hack,' and wrote treatises on the most 
 varied subjects.^ But his chief claim to fame was that he 
 was considered the most skillful experimenter in Germany 
 at the end of the seventeenth century. 
 
 1 See below, ch. viii. 
 ^Atti et Memorie, i, p. 305. 
 
 * Birch, History of the Royal Society, iv, p. 383. 
 
 * Sturm wrote text-books on arithmetic which were long used 
 throughout Germany, a book on planets, articles on Borelli's De Motu 
 Animalium, etc., etc. 
 
2o6 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 He had in his home a private physical laboratory 
 equipped with all necessary instruments, which he used in 
 his university lectures. In 1672 he decided to form, among 
 the devotees of experimental science, mainly his students, 
 the Collegium Curiosum sive Experimentcde, in imita- 
 tion of the Accademia del Cimento. The invitation issued 
 for this purpose, strikes the keynote of the enterprise: 
 " Everybody realizes how much more this century knows 
 of nature's laws than the preceding, and it is well known 
 that the experimental method has brought this about. 
 The Collegium Curiosum is established with the express 
 purpose of doing wonderful experiments with the barom- 
 eter, telescope, camera obscura, pendulum, thermom- 
 eter, hygrometer (though some of this may seem only 
 boy's play). Not 'auditors' but 'spectators' are wanted 
 quod modernae philosophiae proprium est ad experimenta, 
 ipsi oculorum sensui exposita. ..." Sturm promised to 
 show publicly what he had at times demonstrated to his stu- 
 dents, and had for this purpose collected all the necessary 
 instruments, especially air pumps, to enable the society tO' 
 repeat the experiments of Schottys, Boyle and Guericke, 
 etc' 
 
 The original members numbered twenty, — none of whose 
 names posterity has made famous, none indeed who are 
 called doctors, hence I assume that most were students^ — 
 but their number increased steadily.^ 
 
 The account of the work of this society has come down 
 in Latin in two folio volumes entitled Collegium Curiosum 
 sive Experimentale, Altdorf, 1672, published in 1676 and 
 1683. The first volume consists of accounts of sixteen ex- 
 
 ' Collegium Curiosum sive Experimentale, Preface. 
 
 ' Twenty-one new members in 1675 ; thirteen in 1679 ; eighteen in 
 1681 ; twenty-seven in 1683 ; fifteen in 1684. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 207 
 
 periments, some, according to the announcement, first made 
 by the Collegium, some merely repeated by it. These six- 
 teen experimenti tentamina ^ represent the highest type 
 of the physical research of the time.^ 
 
 The second volume comprised fifteen experiments ' made 
 from 1685 to 1692, in great part a continuation of the 
 previous ones " as wonderful as those before." * 
 
 The importance of the society was, that it spread interest 
 in science and trained clever experimenters; indeed, the 
 two volumes it published were in later years used as a text- 
 book of experimental physics. Besides, this society is of 
 historic interest, because it closely resembles the milieu 
 in which experimental science is fostered today. Our mod- 
 ern institutes connected with universities, drawing aid and 
 inspiration from the university professors resemble greatly 
 
 ' I. Diving Bells. 2. Camera Obscura — Explanation of eye. 3. The 
 Barometer experiment (the same as in the Saggi). 4. Syphons. S- 
 Hydrostatic experiments. 6. Waterpump. 7. Experiment to show the 
 atmospheric pressure with a tube of water 36 feet high. 8. Capillarity, 
 g. Thermometer. A differential thermometer of importance in meteor- 
 ology. 10, Airship invented by Franciscus iLana. 11. Mechanics. 
 Laws of Lever and simple machines; an apparatus to show the law of 
 the parallelogram of forces. 12. Universal language. 13. Airpump : 
 Boyle's and Guericke's and their experiments ; the society made im- 
 provement on the pump. 14. a. iHygroscope. b. Chronometer. 15. 
 Microscope. Telescope. 16. Lenses. Refraction. 
 
 ' Rosenberger, op. cit., ii, p. 209. 
 
 ' The fifteen experiments related to i. Diving Bells. 2. Airpumps. 
 3. Barometer. 4. Hygrometer (Toys). 5. Syphons (Arcadian well). 
 6. Glass Tranen-. 7. Lever. 8. Tubes, trumpets (ear trumpets). 9. 
 New thermometer experiments. 10. The Magdeburg hemispheres. 11. 
 Mechanics of muscles. 12. Von Helmont's experiment. 13. Hygro- 
 scope. 14. A perfection of Guericke's pump. 
 
 ' Besides these experiments in physics many things were undoubt- 
 edly tried, so, for instance, Haeser mentioned that at Altdorf under 
 Sturm's guidance work was done on the transfusion of blood. Haeser, 
 op. cit., ii, p. 421. 
 
2o8 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 this Collegium Curiosum sive Experimentale at the 
 home of the Professor of Physics at Altdorf.^ 
 
 In studying the foundation of the Berlin Academy, the 
 only German learned society which parallels the Royal So- 
 ciety, or the Academic des Sciences, a most important point 
 of difference must be noted. The beginnings of the other 
 societies have been traced to enthusiastic amateurs, who 
 met informally to enjoy experimentation, and who estab- 
 lished themselves, ultimately under royal patronage, into 
 definite corporate bodies. Such was not the beginning of 
 the Berlin Academy. Its existence was due to the per- 
 severance and far-sightedness of one man, Gottfried Wil- , 
 helm von Leibnitz; and a study of this man, his attitude 
 toward learned societies in general, and his efforts to found 
 the society in Berlin, form the only possible introduction 
 to an understanding of the establishment of the Berlin 
 Academy. Moreover — ^as was said above — since the Berlin 
 Academy was not founded until 1700, its history properly 
 lies outside the scope of this essay, except in so far as 
 Leibnitz and his role are concerned. 
 
 The importance of Leibnitz as a Kulturtrager has been 
 fully recognized ; Frederic the Great called him " a whole 
 academy in himself." Keller aptly says: 
 
 Among those who incarnated the change of civilization, no 
 name next to Bacon's should be given greater prominence 
 than that of Leibnitz. Nor is it enough to call him a pioneer ; 
 
 ' The important question whether the society outlived its founder, 
 I cannot answer. The Encyclopedia Britannica asserts that it lasted 
 some time after Sturm's death. Sturm planned another larger society, 
 and sent an Epistola invitans ad observationes magneticae vanationis 
 communi studio junctisque laboribus instituendos — an unsuccessful 
 plan for a magnetic " world union " such as was accomplished one 
 hundred years later by Humboldt. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 209 
 
 he is the creator and spokesman of those special elements 
 which characterize modern times in distinction to the Middle 
 Ages/ 
 
 "Nobody," says Hamack, "excelled him in concentrating in 
 himself all the forces of the century." ^ "He was," in Kuno 
 Fischer's words, "like his own monad : charge du passe et 
 gros de I'avenir." " Indeed, if we leave aside his activity 
 as a philosophical writer, which to the less instructed seems 
 his main activity; if we exclude his activities as diplomat 
 and international statesman, which undoubtedly seemed to 
 him of prime interest; if we exclude his work in juris- 
 prudence, which was his profession and omit his marvelous 
 historical research, which entitles him to be regarded as' a 
 forerunner of the modern critical editor of sources, and of 
 which Harnack says, that it alone would have been a life 
 work for most men; if we neglect his tireless activity in 
 reconciling the Catholic and Protestant faiths, which was 
 his lifelong' aim and cherished hope;' we find in the residue 
 of his activities an active participation and cooperation in 
 all those great movements which served to build up a new 
 era.* For he was an opponent of the accepted university 
 education, he aimed at the reconstruction of the entire edu- 
 cational fabric, always emphasizing the superiority of the 
 vernacular, of realia, over book-knowledge. A great 
 mathematician, he loved mechanics and physics, so that as 
 an old man he said to Peter the Great that he preferred 
 making scientific discoveries to honor and fortune, though 
 
 ' Keller, Dr. Ludwig, Leibnitz und die deutschen Societdten des 
 XVII lahrhunderts, p. 2. 
 
 " Harnack, Adolph, Geschichte der Koniglichen Preussischen Akad- 
 emie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, vol. i, p. 9. 
 
 ^ Fischer, K., op. cit., p. 11. 
 
 * One exception must be noted — Leibnitz' opposition to Toland's 
 deism. Harnack, op. cit., p. 9. 
 
2IO THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 chance had made him pay more attention to history and 
 politics. He was connected with the laboratory work of 
 Rosecrucians, was a pioneer geologist, a member of both the 
 English and French societies and founder on their model, 
 of the third great academy of Europe. Moreover he was 
 a constant contributor to scientific papers such as the Acta 
 Eruditorum and the Journal des Savants, and established 
 an important German periodical, MonatHche Ausziige 
 neuer Biicher.^ He found time to correspond with some of 
 his greatest contemporaries, for example, Huygens and 
 Spinoza.^ He was cosmopolitan,^ almost ubiquitous, in the 
 realms of thought. He lived and thought in that larger 
 world of our modern colonial interest. China, Ceylon, the 
 Pacific Coast were realities to him. So thoroughly modern 
 does Leibnitz seem to Harnack that he suggests, if Leibnitz 
 came to life today, he would only see what he definitely 
 foresaw, even the revolutions in the technical arts coming 
 within the compass of his prophetic imagination. 
 
 It is Leibnitz, the reformer and critic of existing educa- 
 tional conditions, and the founder of the Berlin Academy, 
 upon whom our attention will be concentrated. 
 
 To understand Leibnitz's attitude toward education a 
 few words about his Lehrjahre are necessary. He had ob- 
 tained an orthodox Aristotelian education " charge du 
 passe," but he had been years ahead of boys of his age. 
 He had studied law at the most conservative University, 
 Leipzig, and there read philosophy with Jacob Thomasius, 
 
 1 Wegele, op. cit., p. 652. 
 
 • There still exist 15,000 of his letters. 
 
 ' At one time he was president of the Berlin Society ; historian at 
 Hanover; he longed to live in London and to become the historian of 
 England; kept up his relations with the Academic des Sciences and 
 wanted to direct the intellectual work of Austria and Russia. Har- 
 nack, op. cit., i, p. 182. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 211 
 
 father of the reformer Christian Thomasius. Soon, he 
 tells us, he became acquainted with the new school of 
 thought : 
 
 It well chanced that the plans of the great Bacon about "the 
 Advancement of Knowledge," and the deep thoughts of Car- 
 danus and Campanella, and the evidences of a better philosophy 
 as contained in the writings of Kepler, Galilei and Descartes, 
 came into the hand of the youth.^ 
 
 Later he studied mathematics for some semesters at Jena 
 under Weigel.'' Weigel was a great lover of mathe- 
 matics and a skillful mechanician,^ also an astrologer, as- 
 tronomer, jurist and philosopher, an enemy of scholasti- 
 cism, and a friend of the new thought. In 1673 he had es- 
 tablished a mathematical society, Societas Pythagorea; he 
 was interested in a Tugendschule, a new type of school 
 along Comenius's lines. His lectures were so popular that 
 he could find no room spacious enough for those who 
 wished to hear him.* It is very evident that Weigel exerted 
 a deep and lasting influence upon Leibnitz. 
 
 Returning from Weigel's lectures to Leipzig, Leibnitz 
 distinguished himself in legal work, but on account of his 
 youth failed to obtain his doctor's degree at the first trial." 
 To this may be traced in part his hostile attitude toward 
 universities, or rather this may have gone far to open his 
 eyes to their over-conservative features. He left Leipzig 
 and went to the most progressive University of Altdorf 
 where he took his degree, but declined an offer of a pro- 
 fessorship. While there, he became a member — indeed sec- 
 
 • Fischer, Kuno, op. cit., p. 40. ' Ibid., p. 42. 
 
 • Bartholomei, Dr., Zeitschrift fiir Math, und Phys. XIII, Suppl., 
 I- 14; Erhard Weigel, p. 33. Weigel was the author of thirty inventions. 
 
 • Cantor, M., op. cit., iii, p. 36. 
 ' Fischer, Kuno, op. cit., p. 46. 
 
212 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 retary — of the Rosecrusian alchemist order, which was 
 evidently an indication of his growing interest in experi- 
 mental science.^ 
 
 These were Leibnitz's Lehrjahre. His aversion to the 
 educational system as it then existed, comprised in its criti- 
 cism school and university methods alike. Thus, he wrote : 
 
 The teaching of youth should be centered not so much upon 
 poetry, logic and scholastic philosophy as upon reolia, history, 
 mathematics, geography, vera physica; instruction in realia 
 should be pursued in collections of rarities, the study of man 
 in anatomical theatres, chemistry in the apyothecary's shop, 
 botany in botanical, zoology in zoological gardens. The pupil 
 should forever move in the theatrwm imturae et artis, receive 
 ing living knowledge and impressions.^ 
 
 He opposed absolutely the emphasis which school and uni- 
 versity placed upon Latin, because he wanted education to 
 reach everybody, and thought that then, and only then, a 
 better condition of society could be attained.* He also felt 
 that too great a pre-occupation with Latin might be in- 
 jurious to mental development;* and lastly, he objected to 
 Latin because to him it was allied with old thought, while 
 the vernacular was the mouthpiece of the new times. It 
 was, he thought, because Bacon and Descartes had written 
 in English and French, that scholasticism was dead in Eng- 
 land and France; because German was not used in Ger- 
 many, that she still suffered from the bane of scholasti- 
 cism. ° He writes: 
 
 1 Kopp, Hermann, Die Alchemic in JElterer und Neuerer Zeit, p. 623. 
 ' Foucher de Careil, op. cit., vii, pp. 52 sqq. 
 
 • Keller, op. cit., p. 4. 
 
 * Leibnitz said, for instance, " We wrongly dull the intellects of 
 people by learning Latin." Quoted in Harnack, op. cit., p. 31. 
 
 ' Fischer, op. cit., p. 66. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 213 
 
 Our learned men have shown little desire to protect the Ger- 
 man tongue, some because they really thought that wisdom 
 could only be clothed in Latin and Greek; others because they 
 feared the world would discover their ignorance, at present 
 hidden under a mask of big words. Really learned people 
 need not fear this, for the more their wisdom and science come 
 among people, the more witnesses of their excellence they will 
 have. . . . On account of the disregard of the mother tongue, 
 learned people have concerned themselves with things of no 
 use, and have written merely for the bookshelf; the nation 
 has been kept from knowledge. A well-developed vernacular, 
 like highly-polished glass, enhances the acuteness of the mind 
 and gives the intellect transparent clearness.^ 
 
 Just as he objected to the use of Latin, he objected to 
 the entire university system.^ He called the universities 
 " monkish " and accused them of being absorbed in trifles. 
 They gave token of leamedness, never of their own judg- 
 ment, and did not dare to advance anything for which there 
 was no ancient authority. He praised in contradistinction 
 to learned subtilty, the lowly arts of the artisan and " prac- 
 tical man." In a book on carpentry he asserted he found 
 more usefulness and truth than in learned works. ° Again 
 he wrote, "HI had to make a library, I should have only 
 books of invention, experiment or historical documents," * 
 
 1 Keller, op. cit., p. 9, quoting from Leibnitz : UnvorgreiMche Ge- 
 danken betreifend Ausuebung und Verbesserung der Teutschen 
 Spraehe. Ermahnung an die Teutschen ihren Verstand und Sprache 
 besser zu uben, nebst Vorschlag einer teutsch gesinnten Gesellschaft. 
 
 He felt that the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft had right aims, but 
 failed because it strove to introduce German into poetry only and not 
 into science. 
 
 2 Paulsen, Friedrich, Geschuhte des Gelehrten Unterrichts auf 
 Deutschen Universitdten, i, p. 347. 
 
 ' Klopp, O., Die Werke von Leibnitz, iii, p. 229, 
 ' Keller, op. cit., p. S. 
 
214 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 for in " Bucher so am wenigsten geistreich sind, sich im- 
 mer ein oder ander guter Gedanke Undet." 
 
 From the close of his student days (1667) to his death 
 (1716) Leibnitz lived away from university influences, in 
 the close vicinity of courts and in intimate intercourse with 
 noble personages. During these years two ideas never left 
 him — one, the reconciliation of Protestantism and Catho- 
 licism, and the other — ^prosecuted with almost religious 
 ardor — the founding of learned societies. He would for- 
 ward progress, change, Aufkldrung. Other men might have 
 sought to trumpet forth their views by writing books or 
 by teaching, but Leibnitz had little faith in books and in 
 existing channels of instruction. He felt that only by co- 
 operation with men who sympathized with and shared his 
 attitude could his ideas ultimately prevail.^ A learned so- 
 ciety, such as the Royal Society or Academic des Sciences, - 
 in contact with the living world, most appealed to him as 
 the mouthpiece of his views ; and such a society he desired to 
 found on German soil. For us this persistence is of fun- 
 damental importance; for it is the best proof that to one 
 of the most intelligent and most widely informed men of 
 the second half of the seventeenth century the learned so- 
 ciety seemed the best and only instrument to improve exist- 
 ing conditions. These attempts of Leibnitz will therefore 
 be followed in some detail. 
 
 The first project for founding a learned society was made 
 by Leibnitz at the age of twenty-one. A proposal to found 
 a semi-annual journal Semestralia to review all publica- 
 tions,^ grew in Leibnitz's mind into a plan for a Societas 
 Eruditorum Germaniae.'' It was to consist of a fixed num- 
 
 ' Harnack, op. cit., i, p. 21. 
 
 ' Foucher de Careil, Leibnitz: Benmhungen urn ein Kaiserliches 
 Privileg fiir Plan seiner Semestria, vii, pp. i sqq. 
 • Ibid., vii, pp. IS5 sq. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 215 
 
 ber of learned men, was not to mingle in matters of re- 
 ligion, but to keep up a wide correspondence, to collect a 
 universal library, to cooperate with the French, English 
 and Italian academies, to perfect medical science, to watch 
 mathematical experiments, to collect experiments, and have 
 general oversight over commerce and manufacture. Be- 
 sides, the society was to have the right of granting licenses 
 for the publication of books. Leibnitz's plan was, that every 
 author should be required to indicate what matters, either 
 new or useful to the state, his book contained, in order thus 
 to limit the prevailing scrihicitas nmltorum. As the em- 
 peror refused the privilege of censorship, nothing further 
 came of this plan. 
 
 Leibnitz's next two proposals (1669-1670) are most in- 
 teresting. The first document bears the title Grundriss eines 
 Bedenckens von Aufrichtung einer Societdt in Teutschlcmd 
 zum Aufnehmen der Kunste und, Wissenschaften} It may 
 be summarized as follows: Great inventions have been 
 made in mechanics; great discoveries in physiology, chem- 
 istry are kindling a new light; but everything in practical 
 life is as before. The inventions have not yet been util- 
 ized to increase the comfort and happiness of humanity. 
 In order to do this the Germans must found an academy 
 as their neighbors have done. This will awaken the spirit 
 of cooperation and correspondence of experienced men ; in- 
 ventions and experiments, now often lost to the world 
 either because they are not communicated, or because the 
 inventors lack the means of continuing their work, will be 
 utilized.'' 
 
 Leibnitz then outlined his plan of the society. It 
 was to be all-embracing, comprising in its scope, science, 
 
 • Foucher de Careil, op. cit., pp. 27 sqq. 
 'Ibid., vii, p. 48, sec. 24. 
 
2i6 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 history, art, trade, commerce, police, medicine, archives, 
 schools, machines, etc. For instance, dissection of the 
 bodies of both men and animals should be carried on, on 
 a large scale. Not pathology but plain physiology, the 
 normal conditions of fermentation and chemical reaction 
 should be studied.^ Similar to the work of our dispen- 
 saries, it was suggested that poor people be treated 
 as clinical material. Manufactures were to be im- 
 proved by means of new appliances. New suggestions 
 were to be tried, manual labor and commerce to be im- 
 proved. Further, Leibnitz proposed, that education should 
 be directed by the academy, and orphans and foundlings 
 should be educated along technical lines. Members of this 
 society should teach realia; they should become traveling 
 teachers — a novel type of missionary — and induce the Ger- 
 mans to refrain from studying abroad. The influence of 
 the society should be exerted to give to nobles and clergy 
 " the appetite for curiosity," or if they had it, help them to 
 cultivate it. A journal should be founded to encourage 
 correspondence, " that there be trade and commerce in 
 sciences." It should collect useful thoughts, inventions, 
 experiments, so often hidden in obscure places and among 
 humble laborers. Surely — Leibnitz suggests — if such people 
 had a centre where they could report their ideas, they would 
 willingly do so. Furthermore, Leibnitz added suggestions 
 for self-supporting poorhouses and prisons. In conclusion, 
 he emphasized the fact that his proposal was so much 
 broader than the work or the Royal Society and Academic 
 des Sciences, that it should bring better results. 
 
 The second program ^ was published under almost the 
 same title, Bedencken von Aufrichtung einer Academie 
 
 ■ Foucher de Careil, op. cit., vii, p. 53, par. 24. 
 * Ibid., vii, pp. 64 sqq. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 217 
 
 Oder Societdt in Teutschland sum aufnehmen der Kuenste 
 und Wissenschaften. Here we find as follows : the Germans 
 were the first to make inventions, but are the last to utilize 
 them. They did great work in mining, chemistry, mechan- 
 ics ;^ all automatically moving things were invented by them 
 (in Nuernberg and Augsburg) ; Regiomontanus, Coperni- 
 cus, Tycho and Kepler were Germans;^ medicina practica, 
 alchemy and the art of the apothecary flourish in Germany ; 
 a German first tried the transfusion of blood. But in- 
 ventions are exported from Germany and later, somewhat 
 changed, imported as new from foreign countries.^ The 
 reason for this is that the Germans lack associations such 
 as the Royal Society or Academie des Sciences. But this 
 is not their fault. By the establishment of the Academia 
 Naturae Curiosorum and the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft. 
 the German nation has shown that it, too, could soar if it 
 only were assisted.* German princes ought to follow the 
 Royal Society, where the King, the Duke of York, Prince 
 Rupert and many nobles contribute to the expense of sci- 
 entific work. They have their ministers communicate 
 new and rare matter to the society; they admonish the 
 directors of colonies and ship captains to bring whatever 
 new they find to this aera/rium eruditionis solidae puhlicae; 
 they have the society formulate interrogatoria, instructions. 
 directoria for travelers, ambassadors, miners, medical 
 men and artisans, to get deep into the mines of nature." 
 How rich is Germany in erudite men compared with Eng- 
 
 ^ Foucher de Careil, op. cit., vii, p. 75, par. 15. 
 
 ' Incidentally he claims the invention of the telescope for his nation. 
 
 ' Ibid., vii, p. 75, par. 16. 
 
 * Ibid., vii, p. 8l, par. 15. 
 
 ' Ibid; vii, p. 81, par. 17. See above, ch. iv. 
 
2i8 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 land. But her skilful mechanics are starving and emigrat- 
 ing/ though exportation of mind is the very worst contra- 
 band/ The many alchymists would prove smart fellows if 
 properly employed. Finally an appeal is made to the nobles, 
 on the plea of their health, which, according to Leibnitz, 
 will never be properly cared for without a society which 
 encourages the application of the new discoveries of theo- 
 retical medicine to practice. 
 
 These two sketches contain Leibnitz's program for 
 learned societies, adhered to with only slight variation and 
 additions throughout his life. 
 
 Indeed, his own free time was devoted to such a wide 
 range of pursuits, that he veritably seemed "an academy all 
 by himself." Before leaving Mainz he was able to announce 
 an imposing list of discoveries he had made, and plans for 
 further discoveries in mathematics, mechanics, optics, hy- 
 drostatics, pneumatics, nautical science, chief among which 
 was that of a calculating machine. These were the activities 
 which brought him near to the Royal Society and Academic 
 des Sciences in spirit. Soon he was to have the opportu- 
 nity of coming into personal contact with these societies. 
 Sent on a political mission to Paris, he stayed there from 
 1670 to 1676. Here he changed from the German to the 
 European scholar.' He was intimate with many members 
 of the Academic des Sciences,* and though he did not suc- 
 ceed then in obtaining an appointment to the French society, 
 
 1 Foucher de Careil, op. cit., vii, p. 81, par. 18. Welche gescheid seyn, 
 gehen fort und lassen Teuischland mit samt seiner Betteley in Stick. 
 
 ^ Ingenia sind mehr vor Contrebande zu achten als Gold, Eisen, 
 IVaifen. 
 
 • Fischer, K., op. cit., pp. 102 sqq. 
 
 * Huygens introduced him to the study of higher Mathematics. It 
 was in these years that Leibnitz developed his theory of Infinitesimal 
 Calculus that brought him later into a violent quarrel with the Royal 
 Society, which championed Newton's priority in the discovery. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 219 
 
 he undoubtedly had ample opportunity to follow its work. 
 With the Royal Society he was at first in correspondence; 
 later he brought his work — Hypothesis Physica Nova,^ a 
 new cosmic theory, — and his calculating machine to Lon- 
 don, and on his own application, became a fellow of the 
 society (1673).^ 
 
 The result of the experiences of these years is a new 
 scheme, Consultatio de Naturae cognitione ad vitae usus pro- 
 movenda instituendaque in earn rem Societate germana, 
 quae scientias artesque maxime utiles vitae nostra lingua 
 describat patriaeque honorem vindicet,^ a call to learned 
 men to discuss the founding of an academy.* Leibnitz's 
 suggestion was that in Germany an association of men, im- 
 bued with a love of study be established; free from 
 financial cares and supplied with instruments for research, 
 they would accomplish more in ten years than all humanity 
 has done in centuries. The Germans should at last give 
 scope to their skilled men, to their chemists and mechan- 
 icians, and to their language. They should obtain informa- 
 tion, not ex chartis, but ex naturae volumine et mentiiim 
 thesauro.^ Important ideas can be obtained only from 
 authors, whether learned or not, who for themselves inves- 
 tigate and experiment.* Observations must be collected, 
 a German nomenclature established, a survey of existing 
 problems must be made, separating those simple and al- 
 ready solved from the more difficult. Such systematic 
 
 ' Fischer, K., op. cit., p. 70. Neque Tychonicis neque Copernicanis 
 aspernando. 
 
 • Birch, History of the Royal Society, ii, p. 475. 
 
 * Foucher de Careil, op. cit., vii, p. 94. 
 
 * Ibid., vii, p. loi. De fundatione scientiam provehendam institu- 
 enda. 
 
 " Ibid., vii, p. 105. 
 
 • Ibid., vii, p. 112. 
 
220 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 proceedings would put the Germans ahead of all other 
 nations. Even the English and French societies have not 
 accomplished so much, as they might have, had they more 
 consistently heeded the useful. Germany shoidd at last 
 employ the German tongue, and follow the other nations 
 who have dropped Latin, and thus opened arts and sciences 
 to everybody, even to women and young people. An ap- 
 peal is made to the members of the Fruchthringende Gesell- 
 schaft and of the Collegium Naturae Curiosorum to unite 
 in an imperial society. Leibnitz even suggested forty-eight 
 names ^ as the nucleus of such an association. The pur- 
 pose of the society was outlined as follows : to find the true 
 causes of physical phenomena; to make experiments and co- 
 ordinate them; to investigate such matters only as might 
 ultimately be of use in life; to employ the analytical and 
 synthetical method in all experiments; to create an ency- 
 clopedia of all human sciences — for so great was the inter- 
 dependence of the various sciences that one without the 
 other could accomplish nothing. Every member was to 
 assume a task and report upon it within a specified time and 
 in intelligible language. All experiments were to be col- 
 lected ; all reports to be made by the experimenter himself. 
 
 Upon Leibnitz's return from Paris he soon saw how im- 
 possible the scheme of an imperial society was, in view of 
 •the decentralized condition of Germany. 
 
 It was then that he entered the position that he 
 was destined to hold until his death, librarian and con- 
 fidant at the court of Hannover. During the next years we 
 find scattered suggestions of societies. He planned a So- 
 
 ' Harnack, op. cit., p. 31. Among these were Weigel, Helmont, Heve- 
 lius, Steno, Swammerdam, Leuwenhoeck, Tschirnhausen, Guericke, 
 Homberg, Bartolini. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 22 1 
 
 cietas theophilorum vel amoris divini,^ which was to sup- 
 plement the work of the Jesuits, and cultivate those studies 
 the Jesuits neglected, namely, natural science and medicine, 
 and should teach, besides religion, chymica et arcana nch 
 turae. In 1681 Leibnitz planned a magneto-mathematical 
 society/ Then historical study seemed for a while to 
 monopolize his mind. In Frankfurt he discussed with 
 Hiob Ludolf the plan of an Imperial German historical so- 
 ciety,'* similar in scope to the society which, many years 
 later, created the Monumenta Germaniae. 
 
 During the years 1687- 1690 Leibnitz undertook a jour- 
 ney through Germany and Italy to collect materials for his 
 history ; while in Rome he became a member of a physico- 
 mathematical society,'' and there he conceived the novel 
 idea that Italian cloisters should be devoted to experi- 
 mental study and become branch academies/ 
 
 With the marriage of the daughter of the Duke of Han- 
 over to the Elector (later King) Frederick I of Prussia, 
 Leibnitz's previous indefinite ideas regarding the founda- 
 tion of a German learned society were gradually focused 
 into the plan of creating such a body in Berlin. When 
 he heard that there were regular meetings of scientists, al- 
 lotment of problems, etc., at the house of the diplomat, 
 Spanheim, he addressed a series of letters to him, hinting at 
 founding a Societal Electoralis Brandenburgica exemplo 
 Regiarum Londinensis et Parisiensis,^ for he believed 
 
 1 Keller, op. cit, pp. 8-9. Foucher de Careil, op. cit., vii, p. 100. 
 
 ' Harnack, op. cit., i, p. 35. 
 
 ' Wegele, Franz Xavier von, Geschichte der Deutschen Historio- 
 graphie seit dem Auftreten des Humanismus, p. 598; Harnack, op. 
 cit., i, p. 35- 
 
 * Fischer, K., op. cit., p. 201. ' Ibid., p. 12. 
 
 * Foucher de Careil, op. cit., vii, pp. 603 sqq. Denkschrift sur Er- 
 richtuHg einer Societ'dt der Wissenschaften. Harnack, op. cit., ii, 
 pp. 35-42- 
 
222 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 now that the ruler of Prussia was the proper person to 
 head such an enterprise. The type of undertaking which 
 he outlined did not differ widely from those previously 
 sketched. Leibnitz seems surer than ever of the insuffi- 
 ciency of the Royal Society and of the Cimento and the 
 Collegium Naturae Curiosorum. The Berlin society was 
 to be but the central station of a number of branches. The 
 objects of these societies were to be eminently practical, as 
 for example, the encouragement of agriculture, the drain- 
 ing of marshes, the discovery of mines, provisions for 
 public health, guarding against epidemics, the education of 
 youth, etc. As regards science, Leibnitz stated his aim as 
 the welding of theory and practice. 
 
 Not through Spanheim, but through the Electress, Leib- 
 nitz's plans of founding a scientific society came near to 
 accomplishment. Perhaps at the suggestion of Jablonski, 
 the Court preacher, she decided to erect an observatory in 
 Berlin, modeled on that at Paris. The plan was reported 
 to Leibnitz, who was charmed with it, but added: Cela 
 vous pourra engager cependant a aller plus loin et penser 
 encore a d'autres sciences curieuses} 
 
 The founding of the Berlin Academy was, however, des- 
 tined to be an outcome not of this, but of a plan of calendar 
 reform ^ which at the time occupied Protestant Germany.' 
 When in 1699 the Corpus Evangelicorum adopted the 
 Catholic Calendar, it was necessary to establish a commis- 
 sion in Brandenburg, to supervise this change. Inspired by 
 a previous suggestion of Weigel's,* Leibnitz proposed that 
 
 ' Harnack, op. cit., i, p. 47. 
 
 ' I. e., leaving out eleven days as per the Gregorian Calendar. Har- 
 nack, op. cit., ii, p. 58. 
 
 • Harnack, op. cit., i, pp. 64 sqq. 
 
 * Weigel, the professor of Mathematics in Jena, who was mentioned 
 before, as a mind kindred to Leibnitz, proposed in 1694 to the Diet 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 223 
 
 the Elector should keep the monopoly of calendars, and 
 from funds thus accruing, establish an observatory and a 
 learned society. This plan was submitted to the Elector,' 
 and its acceptance was the beginning of the Berlin Academy. 
 " Seldom," says Harnack, " has an undertaking been 
 started with so carefully elaborated a program," ' for Leib- 
 nitz's previous speculations on societies were but prepara- 
 tory to their realization in the Berlin Academy. Jablonski, 
 entirely in Leibnitz's spirit, made definite suggestions. He 
 proposed to erect an observatory with a complete college 
 of science including physics, chemistry, astronomy, geog- 
 raphy, mechanics, optics, algebra, geometry, etc., because 
 an opportunity had fortunately presented itself to do so 
 without expense.' The rules of the Royal Society and 
 Academie des Sciences were to be copied and improved. 
 The president was to be Leibnitz, whose great eruditio in 
 omni scibili, also stupenda inventa promotae matheseos, 
 eminently fitted him for the office. Kirch, a pupil of 
 Weigel, the leading German astronomer, was to be put in 
 charge of the observatory.' Several savants, for example, 
 Tschimhausen and Sturm, were mentioned as correspond- 
 ents. The plan was to build over the middle wing of the 
 royal stable an observatory, an assembly room, a library, 
 a room for instruments, and the apartment of the astrono- 
 mer. Instruments would be easily acquired. All was to be 
 
 that an Imperial Collegium Artis Consultorium of twenty men be es- 
 tablished, which was to have a monopoly of calendar reform, and that 
 the funds thus attained should go to the society for work in astronomy, 
 mathematics and arts. Bartholomei, op. cit., p. 33. 
 
 ' Harnack, op. cit., ii, pp. s8 sq. Jablonski Untertaenigster Vor- 
 schlag wegen Anrichtung eines Observatorii und Academiae Scien- 
 
 ciarum. 
 
 ' Harnack, op. cit., i, p. 73. 
 • Harnack, op. cit, i, p. 114. 
 
224 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 established from the money hoped for from the calendar 
 monopoly (2510 Thaler).^ 
 
 In accepting these proposals, the Elector made the signi- 
 ficant suggestion, that the cultivation of the German lan- 
 guage should be added to the program of the society. Thus 
 he was the author of its philological and historical features, 
 in which regard it differs from the London and Paris 
 body." Leibnitz made several characteristic additions to 
 Jablonski's plan.^ He did not wish the observatory to be 
 the main feature, nor did he wish the society to stand for 
 Curiosa, as did the Paris, London and Florence societies, 
 but for utilia such as interest in agriculture, manufacture, 
 commerce and food. A laboratory was to be established 
 at once.* All appointees of the State were to correspond 
 with the society. He expressed the hope that German 
 nobles, like the English nobility, might develop scientific 
 interest, and that scholars and university people should be- 
 come affiliated with the society. The secretary was to be a 
 young physician who would understand mathematics, me- 
 chanics and chemistry. ° 
 
 Soon, on July 11, 1700, the charter was obtained," and 
 the society with its statutes was constituted. According 
 
 1 Harnack, op. cit., i, pp. 74 sq. In the tables of forecast of expense 
 200 Thaler were allowed for instruments, 100 for printing, 500 for 
 Leibnitz, 500 for Kirch. 
 
 ' Harnack, op. cit., i, p. 78. 
 
 • Ibid., ii, pp. 72 sqq. Leibnitz' letter to Jablonski. 
 
 * " Recht gute Pendula sind hochnoethig ad mensuram temporis." 
 Die Gericksche Instrumenta werden wohl a propos kommen. Barome- 
 tra, thermometra et hygrometra sind auch notig, etc. 
 
 ' A provision not carried out in the appointment of Jablonski to this 
 post. 
 
 ' For the historical student there is interest in the clause in which 
 the history of Brandenburg, not only the cultivation of the language, 
 but German and especially both ecclesiastic and profane, is recom- 
 mended. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 225 
 
 to the example of the Royal Society, there was to be a gov- 
 erning council which appointed the fellows of the society. 
 Meetings were to be held for three subjects: Res physic 0- 
 ynathematicae, Lingua Germanica, Res literariae. The 
 Acta of the society were to be published as Diarium Erudi- 
 torum. The society was to have an observatory, labora- 
 tory, library, museum, "rarities," theatrum naturae et artis, 
 animals and plants/ 
 
 But all this was on paper, and it was Leibnitz's task to 
 get the enterprise started. How busily engaged he was 
 with this task is shown by a list written in August, 1700, 
 of sixty-three matters to be attended to, where to meet, 
 what to publish, whence to get instruments, with whom to 
 start correspondence, etc. For, as we saw, he had waited 
 for this opportunity a life-time and was eager to see it im- 
 proved to the utmost. It required, however, ten years be- 
 fore the society was in any sense established,^ before it met 
 at its own quarters, published its work, the Miscellanea, and 
 obtained its new statutes. And after this, a period of de- 
 cline followed ^ and Leibnitz died feeling that the society 
 was all but extinct. 
 
 In the first years Leibnitz, though residing in Hanover, 
 was very active; but there seems to have been disappoint- 
 ment very soon. The eighty fellows that were appointed 
 did not come up to his standard.* There were continual 
 financial difficulties, for it was understood that the society, 
 was not to cost the King anything, yet the yield of the 
 
 • Harnack, op. cit., i, pp. 92 sqq. 
 
 ' Ibid., i, pp. 173 sqq; also ii, pp. 205 sqq. The formal opening ex- 
 ercises of the society were held January 19, 1711, in the meeting hall 
 of the Observatory. 
 
 * The second volume of Miscellanea was not published until 1723. 
 *Gundling (1715) op. cit., pt. iii, p. 3206, says: "Almost everybody 
 
 can gain appointment and the society rarely meets." 
 
226 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Calendar, its only source of income, was insufficient, and 
 Leibnitz spent much Qnergy devising additional means of 
 income.^ None of his plans, however, except the silkworm 
 monopoly, was accepted. There was personal friction be- 
 tween Leibnitz and the two Jablonski brothers, one of 
 whom was acting president and the other secretary. The 
 building of the society's quarters went on slowly, so that 
 the group had difficulty in finding a place to meet. The ob- 
 servatory was gotten ready somewhat more quickly; but 
 there were no laboratories, and all experimenting had to be 
 done at the homes of the fellows." Yet something was ac- 
 complished; the fellows experimented, investigated, re- 
 ported on scientific work, gathered information from cor- 
 respondence and scientific journals and made magnetic ob- 
 servations in Russia; so that the report to the King in 1702 
 sounded rather promising." 
 
 Diplomatic complications made Leibnitz less popular in 
 Berlin, especially after the death of the Queen (1705) ; yet 
 he remained the moving spirit of the Academy. After a 
 decline in 1706, there was a revival of work from 1707- 
 1710, much of the energy being devoted to the publication 
 of the first volume of the Miscellanea,^ which was to es- 
 tablish the Academy in the world of science. Its contents 
 are the best comment on the activities of the Society. It 
 
 • Tax on traveling outside of Germany ; monopoly of fire engines ; 
 missions; censorship over books; tax on paper; installment of a lot- 
 tery, etc. 
 
 ' Harnack, op. cit., i, p. 121. 
 
 • It spoke of astronomical observations, of finding a new method for 
 making phosphorus, of a plan for publishing the Miscellanea, of 
 getting funds for regulating weights and measures and putting them 
 on the decimal basis. 
 
 • Miscellanea Berolinensia ad incrementum scientiarum ex scriptis 
 Societatis regiae scientiarum exhihita et edita (1710-1734), Berolini, 
 1710. Harnack, op. cit., i, pp. 160 sqq. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 227 
 
 is characteristically in Latin ; — Berlin did not dare to break 
 so fundamentally with precedent as to adopt the vernacular. 
 The work was published in three sections : the mathemati- 
 cal-mechanical section was represented by thirty-seven 
 papers, the physical by fourteen, the literary by seven. 
 This shows clearly that in Germany the mathematical- 
 mechanical interest was predominating. Among the sixty 
 articles, twelve were from Leibnitz's pen — demonstrating 
 how great an element he was in the Berlin Academy. More- 
 over his papers were in all three sections; as Fontenelle 
 said : " Leibnitz appeared here in all his learned roles — 
 historian, antiquarian, etymologist, physicist and mathema- 
 tician." The quality of the work as a whole was of such 
 high grade that it admitted of no doubt that, owing to 
 Leibnitz's activities, the new science had, by 1710, found 
 a home in Berlin. 
 
 After 1710 the society's relations to Leibnitz became 
 strained to an extreme. He was treated abominably by 
 Jablonski ; ^ he was neglected, his salary fraudulently de- 
 nied him, and as the society, but for Leibnitz, had really 
 never been alive, it inevitably declined. Then it must not 
 be forgotten that the throne of Prussia was soon occupied 
 by Frederick William 1, who hated science as mere babble 
 and effeminateness, regarded Leibnitz as a man, not useful 
 enough even to use as a patrolman (Schildwach) " and who 
 had the meanness to charge the Academy rent for its use 
 of the observatory,^ so that nothing but decline could be 
 expected. The splendid revival of the Academy falls out- 
 side of the scope of our discussion. 
 
 The Berlin Academy, even if it had come up to the ex- 
 pectations of Leibnitz, would not have satisfied his desire 
 
 ' Harnack, op. cit., i, pp. 169 sqq. Leibnitz never was in Berlin after 
 1711. 
 • Ibid., i, p. 183. • Ibid., 1, p. 189. 
 
228 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 for learned societies. For his ambition in its entirety was 
 to found a series of cooperating societies in different locali- 
 ties which should be scattered ultimately over the entire 
 globe. As a beginning we find him in 1703 trying to found 
 a society in Dresden.^ Tschirnhausen had planned in years 
 past a mathematical-physical society in Leipzig. A similar 
 project was now proposed by Leibnitz to the ruler of Sax- 
 ony and accepted by him. The society of which Leibnitz 
 was to be president was to obtain its financial support by a 
 tobacco monopoly. In addition to the scope of the Berlin 
 Academy it was to include the publication of statistical 
 tables of disease,^ to be a " house of intelligence and issue 
 bills of mortality," and was to have the oversight of edu- 
 cation.^ Historical works,* a dictionary,^ etc., were to be 
 edited. On the eve of the adoption of this plan the out- 
 break of war frustrated the scheme; but nevertheless 
 Leibnitz must be counted among the potential founders of 
 the Dresden Academy which came to life so much later. 
 
 Within the last five years of Leibnitz's life he was seri- 
 ously engaged in projects for two more scientific societies. 
 Russia had always attracted him because it was yet tabula 
 rasa,^ had not yet acquired the taste for studies, and could 
 from the start be kept from reiterating the worst errors of 
 the " system." Moreover its hugeness and proximity to 
 Asia fired his imagination.' In 1711 he met the Czar and 
 outlined to him his program of establishing learning in 
 Russia ; the study of realia must be foremost ; laboratories 
 and observatories must be founded; scientific expeditions 
 
 ' Fischer, op. cit, p. 235, 
 ' Foucher de Careil, o/'. cit., vol. vii, p. 226. 
 
 " Leibnitz had been appointed counselor in the education of the son 
 of the ruler. Ibid., vii, p. 234. 
 * Ibid., vii, p. 219. ^ Ibid., vii, p. 272. 
 
 « Ibid., vii, p. 468. ' Ibid., vii, p. 395. 
 
GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 229 
 
 to Siberia and China should be made ; ^ extensive magnetic 
 observations be arranged ; ^ dictionaria technica devised,* 
 in which the terminology of arts and crafts should be ex- 
 plained in words and pictures. All this could be done 
 if supervised by a learned society such as he had estab- 
 lished in Berlin.* In Peter the Great Leibnitz felt he had 
 found that patron of science he sought for. Peter in turn 
 gave him a pension of f 1000 — but no society was estab- 
 lished.^ Yet the founding of the Academy of St. Peters- 
 burg (1724) can clearly be traced to Leibnitz's suggestions. 
 
 The years 1712-1714 Leibnitz spent in Vienna, very 
 much respected by all prominent men, intimate with Prince 
 Eugenio " and the Emperor. Here again he worked for the 
 establishment of an imperial society. This was planned 
 on the broadest lines ; ' it was to be the centre of a series 
 of institutes for the building of machines, observatories, 
 physical laboratories, minerological and botanical collec- 
 tions. Here an encyclopedia of knowledge, along Baconian 
 lines, was projected in order that gradually the knowledge 
 of the individual scientist was to become the common prop- 
 erty of all men. He obtained an imperial protocol ' for this 
 foundation but, through the activities of the Jesuits, the 
 plan was defeated, and the Academy of Vienna was founded 
 one hundred and thirty years later. 
 
 Soon after this Leibnitz died, presumably heart broken 
 
 1 Foucher de Careil, op. cit., pp. 519-546. 
 
 ''Ibid., vii, p. 563. 
 
 " Ibid., vii, pp. 584 sqq. 
 
 * Foucher de Careil, op. cit., Muscovite Plan, vii, pp. 472 ff. 
 ' Harnack, op. cit., i, p. 182. 
 
 * Foucher de Careil, op. cit., Letter to Prince Eugene, vii, pp. 312-315. 
 ' Fischer, K., op. cit., pp. 136-139. 
 
 * Foucher de Careil, op. cit., vii, p. 339. Kaiserliches Decret sur Er- 
 richtung der Universit'dt, vii, p. 374. 
 
230 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 at the failure of most of his plans. As we contemplate 
 the phase of his activities studied here, his ideals stand 
 out perfectly clearly. Scientific societies are the only 
 means whereby useful knowledge can be developed and 
 spread. It was his ambition to create such scientific so- 
 cieties throughout all important cities, as far as culture 
 and civilization reached; they were to communicate 
 with each other and thus create a federation of learned 
 men who would through science guide the destinies and 
 civilization of mankind. It was a great idea, and so much 
 in advance of his time that it can hardly be said to be ac- 
 complished even to-day, to the extent which he had con- 
 ceived. 
 
 We may say, in conclusion, that, at the opening of the 
 eighteenth century, no place in Germany existed where ex- 
 perimental science was fostered and cultivated as it was in 
 the Royal Society and Academic des Sciences. Indeed 
 through the efforts of Leibnitz the need and importance of 
 founding such centres for scientific work had been loudly 
 proclaimed, and one such centre in Berlin had been founded, 
 but most of his words and advice remained unheeded. It 
 is perhaps in consequence of this, that Germany remained 
 on a lower level in experimental science than France and 
 England for many decades, and that, except in chemistry, 
 the names of the pioneers of science are not to be found 
 among the Germans. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Scientific Journals 
 
 In studying the activities of the scientific societies in 
 the various countries during the seventeenth century, it 
 has been seen that their functions were really two-fold ; 
 they created laboratories and observatories and did a 
 great deal to encourage original work ; but they often, 
 in addition, undertook to publish, periodically, news of 
 the work done under their auspices, and often the work 
 of other learned men, in order to make it known as 
 quickly and as widely as possible. These two functions 
 of investigation and propaganda are not necessarily in- 
 separable. Indeed, the Scientific Journal can be con- 
 ceived of, as the organ of an association of men who laid 
 the entire stress upon the latter feature, and consciously 
 divorced the encouragement of original research from 
 their aims. For this reason a consideration of certain 
 scientific journals may be included in our discussion of 
 learned societies. 
 
 It is not surprising that the same century that gave 
 birth to experimental science witnessed the develop- 
 ment of scientific journalism. For the experimenter 
 must know how far and by what methbds fellow workers 
 have solved the problems in which he is engaged; he 
 cannot dispense with an organ which shall bring him 
 this information. The age which created for him labora- 
 tories and the milieu for scientific work, was predestined 
 also to supply this need. 
 
 231^ 
 
232 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 The only means of scientific intercommunication in the 
 early seventeenth century was private correspondence. 
 Hence, the great significance of such men as Mersenne,' 
 Peiresc,' Collins ' and Wallis/ who kept up a voluminous 
 correspondence, and the necessity that such scientists as 
 Huygens and Boyle should be in personal communica- 
 tion with other scientists. The unreliability of this 
 form of communication is self-evident. It depended too 
 much on friendly or hostile feeling, and at times on 
 geographical contiguity, whether or not important dis- 
 coveries reached the world. The numerous quarrels 
 regarding scientific discoveries, as for instance between 
 Torricelli and Pascal, Newton and Leibnitz, Hooke and 
 Huygens, best prove the insufficiency of such informal 
 intercommunications. In order to secure priority while 
 keeping discoveries secret, ciphers were used. The right 
 road to a solution of all these difficulties was clearly in- 
 dicated when Denis de Sallo published in 1665 the first 
 volume of the Journal des Sgavans. 
 
 It is typical of the close relation of learned societies 
 and the scientific journal that we find as their editors 
 the same type of Kulturtrager as in the members of the 
 learned societies, men thoroughly in sympathy with pro- 
 gress, eager to add their quotum to the impulse of 
 change, ready to help in the task of dispelling superstition 
 and intolerance. 
 
 Such a man was Denis de Sallo.^ He was a member 
 of the Parlement of Paris, and belonged to the coterie of 
 learned men with whom Colbert surrounded himself, in 
 
 ' See above, ch. v. ' See above, ch. ii. 
 
 ' Cotnmercium Epistolicum, J. Collins et aliorum, etc, published New- 
 toni Opera (1782), vol. iv, pp. 443 sqq. 
 * Cantor, op. cit., iii, p. 9. 
 'Hatin, Histoire de la Presse en France, ii, p. 152. 
 
THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS 
 
 233 
 
 order to avail himself of their knowledge. It had been 
 Sallo's habit in his extensive reading to engage several 
 copyists and have them transcribe the most remarkable 
 passages he came across in his readings ; these he ar- 
 ranged so that he could obtain quickly information on 
 any subject desired. It occurred to him that he might 
 do for the public what he had done for himself. He 
 submitted to Colbert a scheme of publishing weekly' 
 matters of general interest. This idea which seems so 
 natural to us to-day, was hailed as a happy discovery, 
 and the privilege of editing such a periodical under the 
 name of Journal des Scavans was easily obtained. 
 
 The first number appeared January 5, 1665, published 
 by Sallo under the assumed name of Sieur d' Hedou- 
 ville. It was small in size, perhaps to emphasize its 
 popular aims, or, as Zedler '' suggests : fluchtigblutige 
 Franzosen haben Ekel vor Folianten. Its purpose is 
 well stated in the address to the reader. It proposed, 
 first, to give a catalogue and short description of books ; 
 second, to give obituaries of famous men and summarize 
 their works ; third, and most significant for us, the 
 prospectus proclaims that the journal will publish ex- 
 periments in physics and chemistry which serve to 
 explain natural phenomena, new discoveries in arts and 
 sciences, useful machines, curious inventions of mathe- 
 niaticians, observations of the heavens, meteorological 
 phenomena and new anatomical findings in animals- 
 The fourth point of the program was the publication 
 of the principal decisions of tribunals and universities ; 
 the fifth, of current events in the world of letters.' 
 
 ' " Because news ages so quickly." 'Zedler, op. cit. p. 8. 
 
 ^Journal des Sfavans, Au Lecieur, vol. i. 
 
234 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 This extensive program the Journal des Sqavans car- 
 ried out. Sallo published it but four months,' for, on 
 account of hostile Jesuit criticism, his license was with- 
 drawn ; nevertheless within this short time even the peri- 
 odical proved its raison d'itre. The direction of it was 
 put into the hands of Sallo's former collaborator, I'Abbe 
 Gallois," who had lived with him, and whom we met as 
 a member of the Academie des Sciences. For nine years 
 he supervised the periodical,^ then I'Abbe La Roque* 
 became its publisher, until in 1702 the same I'Abbe 
 Bignon ^ who rejuvenated the Academie des Sciences put 
 the Journal on a new basis, edited by a board instead of 
 by one man. 
 
 In the publications of the first years we iind that pos- 
 sibly one-third of the articles are on historical researches. 
 The rest are concerned with the work of the scientific 
 societies.* Especially the work of the members of la com- 
 pagnie qui assemblent d la biblioth^que du Roi,^ fills 
 the pages of the Journal. Thus, in 1667 we find a de- 
 tailed account of Perrault's dissections,* of Pecquet's 
 medical discoveries,' in 1669 a description of various 
 mechanisms examined by the Academic,'" in 1670 an 
 article on Roberval's balance," in 1672 the account of 
 numerous experiments in congelation; Huygens and 
 
 ' Hatin, op. cit., ii, p. 174. ^ Ibid., ii, p. 176. 
 
 'In the years of 1673 and 1674 it was practically extinct. Ibid., ii, p. 
 176. 
 
 * Hatin, op. cit., ii, p. 178. ^ Ibid., p. 189. 
 
 ' In the two years 1665 and 1666 eighteen articles of the Philosophical 
 Transactions were published ; in 1667, five ; 1668, six, containing Boyle's 
 experiments; 1675, eight; 1677, fourteen; 1678, six, etc. 
 
 "'Journal des Sgavans (1668), vol. ii, p. 386, 
 
 * Ibid. {1667), vol. ii, pp. 209, 230. ^ Ibid. (1667), vol. ii, p. 104. 
 ^"Ibid. {1669), vol. ii, p. 513. ^^ Ibid. (1670), vol. iii, pp. 23, 26. 
 
THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS 235 
 
 Mariotte communicated regularly with the Journal. In 
 1675, we find five reports of Huygens' pendulum clock,' 
 in 1676, eight reports, in 1679 (a most scientific volume) 
 five reports of happenings at the Academie. 
 
 Among the authors of scientific articles for the year 
 1665-6 were Bausch and Sachs of the Collegium Nat- 
 ures Curiosorum, Hevelius, Kircher and Divini, the 
 Italian maker of lenses. We find also Hooke's Micro- 
 graphia reviewed at length. In 1667, and throughout 
 the volumes of the succeeding years, the question of the 
 transfusion of blood was discussed, indeed in 1668 there 
 was a symposium on that question. 1672 contained an 
 account of Newton's telescope" and Huygens' criticism 
 thereon ; 1675 ^" article by Leibnitz, three articles on 
 Boyle's experiments;' i676'' articles on Grew and Mal- 
 pighi, reports on Lemery's text books of chemistry. 
 The issue of May 5, 1681 was entirely devoted to the 
 question of comets. We have reports of experiments, 
 reviews of scientific books, discussions of astronomical 
 problems, extracts taken from contemporaneous papers, 
 such as the Philosophical Transactions, the Giornale di 
 Litterati, the Miscellanea, etc. 
 
 This will be sufficient to indicate how closely affiliated 
 this first scientific journal was with the world which the 
 learned societies represent. It came to be the organ of 
 intercommunication, not only between the members of 
 the various societies, but also between the societies and 
 the lay reading public both in France and the rest of 
 the continent. Its continued existence shows a wider 
 interest in scientific questions at this time than is usually 
 
 ^ Journal des Sgavans (1675), vol. i\ passim. 
 
 ''Ibid. (1672), vol. iii. p. 94. 
 
 *Ibid. (1675), vol. iv, pp. 204-284. */Wrf. (1676), vol. v, p. 3. 
 
236 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 suspected. Indeed so much was it identified with this 
 interest, that if there were a list of those who subscribed 
 or read the Journal des Sgavans we should be in pos- 
 session of a record of that indefinable and fluctuating 
 something called popular interest in science. 
 
 How unmistakably the French periodical met a real 
 need of the time can be gathered from the promptness 
 with which the enterprise was copied in England, Italy, 
 Germany and Holland. The Philosophical Transactions, 
 published March i, 1665, two months after the Journal 
 des Sgavans, have been discussed in connection with 
 the Royal Society. All subsequent scientific periodicals 
 developed as imitations of these two, — the Journal des 
 Sgavans was used as the model for periodicals which were 
 to appeal to a broader reading public, the Philosophical 
 Transactions with their bulky volumes of monthly publi- 
 cation came to be the standard for publications of 
 Scientific Societies. 
 
 The first to copy the French periodical were the 
 Italians in their Giornale de Litterati di Roma (1668- 
 1679) continued as, // Giornale de Litterati per tutto V 
 anno — Parma (1668-1690) and Modena (1692-1697) 
 In the preface the editor Michael Angiolo Ricci, whom 
 we met as corresponding member of the Cimento, stated 
 that he wished to give the Italians the benefit of a 
 publication in the vernacular such as the French had.' 
 The type of their work seems to have been similar to 
 that of the Journal des Sgavans, — indeed the French 
 paper took notice of many of their articles ; ' but the 
 Italian periodical was often discontinued because it ap- 
 
 ' Giornale de i dotti o eruditi vogliamo dire de i letterati pochi anni 
 sono introdotto in Parigi . . . e stato, recevuto con mulio applause. . . 
 ^Journal des Sfavans, 166?, passim. 
 
THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS 
 
 237 
 
 pealed to an infinitely smaller number of readers than 
 its French model. 
 
 The next scientific journal in order of time was the 
 German medical paper, Miscellanea Naturae Curiosorum, 
 which has been discussed above.' Then there were the 
 Acta Medica et philosophica Hainiensia (1673-1680) 
 edited by Thomas Bartholinus. In France several papers 
 were published. The first (1679) Nouvelles Descou- 
 vertes sur toutes les parties de la Medicine," published 
 monthly for five years, by Nicholas de Blegny, a charlatan. 
 When this paper was suppressed, he fled to Holland and 
 with Gautier published the Mercure Sgavant, which sug- 
 gested the idea of publishing a periodical to Pierre 
 Bayle. La Roque, the editor of the Journal des Sgavans 
 from 1675 until 1686 published from 1683 to 1686 a new 
 periodical, as Hatin relates — in order not to let perish one 
 thousand beautiful observations which could not find 
 space in the Journal des Sgavans, either on account of 
 their length, or because they were less to the taste of 
 the general public — under the name Journaux de Medi- 
 cine ou Observations des plus fameux Medicines . . . 
 tiroes des Journaux Etrangers ou des M^moires par- 
 ticuli^res. There are references also to the Collectanea 
 Medico-Physica (Amsterdam 1680) published in the 
 Dutch language. Thus the idea of a journal especially 
 devoted to medicine was widely accepted. 
 
 Next in order of time comes a publication resembling 
 more the Philosophic Transactions than the Journal des 
 Sgavans: the scient"iirc~Journarorthe Germans, the Acta 
 Eruditorum, published monthly at Leipzig from the year 
 1682.' Leipzig was then — as it is now — the center of the 
 
 'See above, ch. vi. 'Hatin, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 255 sqq. 
 
 » Hence also called Acta LeipHensia. 
 
238 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 German book trade ; it was therefore appropriate that it 
 should produce a journal, part of whose function was to 
 keep the world informed of the new books which were 
 being published. As this paper represents the most 
 essential contribution Germany made to the cause of 
 science during the seventeenth century, it deserves 
 careful study. The enterprise was supported by the 
 Duke of Saxony. Otto Mencke, professor of Morals 
 and Practical Philosophy, in conjunction with a learned 
 body, variously referred to as the Collegium Gellianum 
 or Leipsicum,^ undertook the publication of these Acta 
 Eruditorum. Mencke was assisted by numerous reg- 
 ular correspondents, representatives of all branches of 
 learning," not only throughout Germany, but also in 
 England and Holland.^ The publication appeared in 
 huge folios, which show to Zedler that the German was 
 schwerbluetig-melancholicus.'' The articles were written 
 in Latin, and no attention whatsoever was given to cur- 
 rent events.' 
 
 The volumes contained learned articles and announce- 
 ments — not criticisms — of learned books. These Acta 
 Eruditorum are a curious transitional product, reflecting 
 past scholasticism while they are filled at the same time 
 with the new knowledge. In the address to the reader 
 Mencke pointed out the purpose of the publication, 
 namely, that whereas the Philosophical Transactions 
 dealt with experiment only, the Journal des Sqavans 
 and Giornale de Litterati were tOQ_po Dular and literary 
 and the Miscellanea Natures Curiosorum limited to 
 
 'Gundling, op. cit., sec. 4, vol. iii, p. 3210; Prutz, op. cit., p. 275. 
 
 ''Ibid., p. 282 (among these was Leibnitz). 
 
 'Cantor, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 201. 
 
 * Zedler, op. cit., p. 8. 'Prutz, op. cit., p. 279. 
 
THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS 
 
 239 
 
 medicine and science, the Ada Eruditorum planned to 
 combine the important elements of all these and to 
 make their direct appeal to the erudite class.' But how 
 far the Acta differed in spirit from the Philosophical 
 Transactions is clearly shown by a perusal of the Index 
 volume' where special headings are allowed, not only 
 for medicine and mathematics, but also for law, for 
 " theological subjects," and for references to the Bible 
 {Locorum Scripturtz) , the editors being orthodox in 
 their religious convictions.' 
 
 A rapid perusal of the first volumes however shows 
 that the Acta were in " Fiihlung" with the new Science. 
 The first volume opens with Nehemiah Grew's work; 
 Boyle, Sydenham, Papin, Borelli, Leuwenhoek, Leibnitz, 
 Sturm, Bernouilli, Hevelius were represented in its 
 pages* and the following volumes continued to count the 
 most progressive scientists among their contributors,' 
 and in their pages are found many statements of interest 
 
 ^Acta Eruditorum "Lectori," vol. i. 
 ''Acta Eruditorum, Indices generates. 
 
 ' The following table gives an idea of the relative stress laid on various 
 subjects in the volumes: (1683-1700). 
 
 Volume 
 
 
 1 
 
 II 
 
 III IV V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 X 
 
 XI 
 
 XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII 
 
 Theology . 
 
 3S 
 
 SO 
 
 56 ?I ss 
 
 65 
 
 S6 48 
 
 54 
 
 59 
 
 56 
 
 40 38 46 50 48 ^3 
 
 Law .... 
 
 16 
 
 J9 
 
 II :4 9 
 
 7 
 
 16 10 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 12 15 13 6 74 12 
 
 Medicine & Physics 
 
 43 
 
 48 
 
 47 48 48 
 
 32 
 
 33 26 
 
 19 
 
 19 
 
 18 
 
 28 20 24 18 21 26 
 
 Mathematics aod 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Astronomy . . 
 
 23 
 
 33 
 
 31 28 30 
 
 16 
 
 25 24 
 
 15 
 
 29 
 
 22 
 
 26 33 36 23 24 17 
 
 History and 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Geography . . 
 
 24 
 
 31 
 
 44' ^2 
 
 34 
 
 40 27 
 
 16 
 
 30 
 
 35 
 
 31 40 45 25 29 48 
 
 Philology 
 
 27 
 
 41 
 
 30 
 
 17 24 
 
 30 
 
 37 
 
 4' 
 
 46 36 32 41 30 45 
 
 * Vol. I was translated into French. Published in the Haag, iB8s. 
 ' I adjoin a table with the names of the most prominent contributors 
 and most interesting articles of the first sixteen volumes. 
 Vol. 2. Borelli, Leuwenhoek, Bernouilli, Descartes, Hevelius, Sturm. 
 Vol. 3. Halley, Boyle, Grew, Pascal, Sydenham, Hevelius, Huy- 
 gens, Sturm. 
 
240 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 in the history of Science. Indeed the Acta stand in 
 the very center of the scientific life of Europe, — Gelehrte 
 schrieben fur Gelehrte.^ If we ask what they accom- 
 plished, we find that by proposing problems and re- 
 
 Vol. 4. Leuwenhoek, Anatomy and Contemplation of Several In- 
 visible Secrets of Nature. Waller's translation of the 
 ' ' Saggi" of the Cimento. Articles of Bertolimus, Bernouilli, 
 Boyle (description of apparatus), Grew, Leuwenhoek. An- 
 nouncement of Schwammerdam's book and of Sturm's pub- 
 lication of Academia Altorfinna. 
 
 Vol. S- Leuwenhoek, Papin, Redus, Bernouilli, Campani, Cassini, 
 Flamsteed, Wallis. 
 
 Vol. 6. Report of the method of studying Magnetic Declination, 
 found by the French Academy; Review of Malpighi's work; 
 Ray's and Willoughby's History of Plants ; Boyle, Halley, 
 Papin. 
 
 Vol. 7. Review of Newton's " Principia" in eleven folio pages 
 (Newton is called " eximius nostri temporis Mathemati- 
 cus ") ; Articles of Boyle, Papin, Bernouilli, Cassini, Weigle. 
 
 Vol. 8. Leuwenhoek, Bernouilli, Papin, Sturm. 
 
 Vol. 9. Huygens' theory of light, Bernouilli, Papin and Reisellius 
 (on a model of a steam engine), Sturm. 
 
 Vol. ID. Bernouilli (on effervescence and fermentation), Boyle, 
 Locke, Huygens, Hevelius, Bernouilli. 
 
 Vol. II. A review of the mathematical and physical publications of 
 the Acadimie des Sciences, published in Haag, 1692; Cas- 
 sini's Moons of Jupiter; Bernouilli's Caustics and Cycloids. 
 
 Vol. 12. Boyle, Leibnitz, Ray, Bernouilli, Campani, Cassini, Halley, 
 Huygens, Leibnitz, Weigel. 
 
 Vol. 13. Continuation of the Report of the Acadimie des Sciences; 
 Bernouilli's Mathematical Meditation on Motions of Mus- 
 cles ; Ray, Jacob and John Bernouilli, Cassini, Viviani, 
 Leibnitz (on the applications of the new Differential 
 Calculus). 
 
 Vol. 14. Leibnitz, Papin, Sydenham, Tschirnhausen, Tournefort, 
 Bernouilli, Cassini, De La Hire, Hopital, Huygens, Mari- 
 otte, Roberval. 
 '■ Vol. 15. Grew, Tschirnhausen, Cassini, Leibnitz, Wallis. 
 
 Vol. 16. Malpighi (posthumous), Sturm, Leibnitz, Newton (solution 
 of problem proposed by Bernouilli) , Tschirnhausen. 
 
 'Prutz, op. cit., p. 286. 
 
THE SCIENTIFIC. JOURNALS 24 1 
 
 cording solutions they constituted a forunl for the ex- 
 change of ideas. They published works of scientists, 
 as for example, Tschirnhausen's. They reviewed the sci- 
 entific work of foreign nations, which was their main pur- 
 pose,' and thus made Germany acquainted with the sci- 
 entific accomplishments of the world. During a decade 
 when Germany through that lack of learned societies which 
 Leibnitz lamented, apparently lagged behind, they tried to 
 collect what there was of German scholarship and inform 
 the outside world of German scientific thought." They 
 seem to have excited admiration abroad ; " I found them, 
 so judicious, so exact, so diverse" — says Pierre Bayle — 
 "that they surpass their great reputation." ^ To the 
 historian they furnish a valuable record of the great 
 scientific achievements of the seventeenth century ; and 
 their pages bear witness to the high work done in the 
 scientific societies. 
 
 The only periodical which in any sense rivaled in 
 popularity and influence the Journal des Sqavans was 
 the Nouvelles de la R^publique des Lettres. The famous 
 Pierre Bayle, residing in Holland as Professor of Philos- 
 ophy and History at the University of Rotterdam, de- 
 cided in 1684'* to publish this new periodical. While its 
 name suggests a purely literary publication, it is in the 
 type of its articles a popular scientific journal. In the 
 preface, Bayle appropriately said, that while the idea of 
 the Journal des Sqavans had been copied from nation to 
 
 ''^ Acta Eruditorum, Preface, vol. iii. 
 
 ' Tschirnhausen said his main purpose in publishing in the Acta was 
 to come to the notice of the AcadStnie des Sciences and thus to obtain 
 a pension from Louis XIV (Cantor, op. cit., iii, p. 113). 
 
 ^Nouvelles de la Rtpubliques des Lettres, vol. i, p. i. 
 
 *Hatin, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 222. 
 
242 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 nation, from science to science, by physicians and chem- 
 ists, Holland alone had not done its share, although on 
 account of the liberty of the press, works from every quar- 
 ter were published there. He asked his readers to com- 
 municate new discoveries to him ; and announced that the 
 periodical would publish Eloges of scientists. He 
 characteristically added that this would be done regard- 
 less of the religious persuasion of the scientists, with 
 a view only to their scientific reputation; for in the 
 republic of letters all learned men should regard each 
 other as brothers. Bayle further promised that the 
 Nouvelles would inform the public of the happenings at 
 the various academies." Referring only to the scientific 
 element in the volumes, we find in their pages Papin's 
 experiments on the circulation of blood ' m^de in Venice, 
 Wallis' and Boyle's ^ books ; reviews of Leuwenhoeck's * 
 article on the generation of man written to Christian Wren 
 — published in Latin so as not to shock the lay reader, — 
 an article of the Journal des Sqavans about siphons' "in- 
 vented by a man without knowledge of Latin or aid of any 
 master," articles on anatomy from \h.t Melanges Curieux,^ 
 etc. The paper was published for only three years but 
 nevertheless greatly advanced the cause of periodical sci- 
 entific literature. It was continued by H. Basnage de 
 Beauval in the Histoiredes Ouvrages des Savants (1687- 
 1 704) and by Leclerc in the Biblioth^que Universelle et 
 Historique'' (1686-1693), where there are found publica- 
 
 ^ Nouvelles de la Ripublique des Lettres, preface, vol. i. 
 
 ^Ibid., May, 1686, vol. i, p. 563. 
 
 ^ Ibid., June, 1684, vol. i, pp. 76 sqq. 
 
 'Ibid,, September, 1684, vol. i, p. 118. 
 
 ''Ibid., February, 1865, vol. i, p. 230. 
 
 "Ibid., July, 1685, vol. i, p. 336. 
 
 'Hatin, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 251. 
 
THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS 
 
 243 
 
 tions of Leuwenhoeck and Hooke and Willoughby. On 
 the whole, the scientific element in these later volumes is 
 less apparent. 
 
 In the last decade of the seventeenth century, periodi- 
 cals copying the Journal des Sqavans and Nouvelles de 
 la Rkpublique multiplied; two of these were Dtp&che 
 du Parnasse ou la Gazette des Savants'^ (Geneva, 1693), 
 and Nouveau Journal des Savants dressi & Rotterdam ' 
 published by Etienne Chauvin, a French fugitive (Berlin, 
 I 696-1 698). 
 
 It will be evident from this short survey that the 
 cause of scientific periodicals was victorious by the end 
 of the seventeenth century. They were of the greatest 
 assistance in advancing the idea for which the learned 
 societies stood. Publications of the type of the Journal 
 des Sqavans and Nouvelles de la R^publique des Lettres 
 reached a much wider circle of men and brought the mes- 
 sage of scientific thought and inquiry to many whom the 
 learned societies or the more learned publications could 
 never have reached. Periodicals of the type of the Philo- 
 sophic Transactions and the Acta were invaluable; for thus 
 there were created channels through which the savants and 
 Naturae Curiosi could publish their ideas, communicate 
 with each other and be informed of the progress of sci- 
 ence, and in this way those objects for which the learned 
 society had been founded were promoted. Periodicals of 
 the type of Miscellanea Naturae Cutiosorum are of 
 special interest, as they foreshadowed the publications of 
 more specialized societies of a later time. The Scientific 
 Journal must be thought of, therefore, as an invaluable 
 instrument which the seventeenth century created partly 
 in the service of, partly co-operating with, the learned 
 societies. 
 
 'Hatin, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 256. ^Ibid., vol. ii, p. 257. 
 
I Mill 
 ili'iil 
 
PART III 
 
 THE LEARNED SOCIETIES AND THE 
 UNIVERSITIES 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 Science in the Universities 
 
 We shall now turn to a cursory study of the attitude 
 taken by' the universities in the seventeenth century to- 
 ward the experimental sciences. The European univer- 
 sities in 1600, however they might differ from one an- 
 other in detail, had many common characteristic features 
 which were preserved unchanged from the medieval 
 scholastic period. The beginning of all university study 
 was the four years' course leading to the Bachelor's de- 
 gree, comprising grammar, logic, rhetoric, and the four 
 mathematical subjects — arithmetic, music, geometry and 
 astronomy.' Astronomy was, of course, not the science 
 as we conceive it, with observatory and telescope, but 
 was based on a study of Ptolemy's standard treatise. 
 Three- additional years spent in the study of utraque 
 philosophia, of natural philosophy, moral philosophy 
 and metaphysics, brought the Master's degree. Natural 
 philosophy or physics meant the reading of Aristotle's 
 books. These requirements for the degrees differed in 
 various universities, but the amount covered was always 
 about the same — for the most part a study of the works 
 of Aristotle. After obtaining the Master's degree, the 
 student might attach himself to the faculty of theology, 
 law or medicine to attain, in a time varying from four to 
 seven years, the professional degree. The theological 
 
 '^Register of the University of Oxford {1581-1622). Edited by 
 Andrew Clark, vol. ii, pt. i, p.- 225. 
 
 247 
 
248 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 faculty was of the highest dignity, suggesting the ecclesi- 
 astical auspices under which the universities had often 
 developed. Most administrative offices of the university 
 were held by the theologians; and the required adher- 
 ence to definite religious views put the church's stamp 
 upon the whole institution. The faculties of philosophy 
 and of law were closely allied to that of theology; 
 that of medicine stood apart, and was therefore the 
 least significant. All—iaistructio n and even communi-. 
 cation between Jhe students-was in Latijtj.. On account 
 of this, and a series of laws specially protecting those at- 
 tending the universities, a hedge seemed set about them, 
 unsurmountable to the valgus proianum. The instruc- 
 tion by the professors consisted of "lectures" in the 
 literal sense of the word, a reading of the prescribed text 
 with such comments and explanations as they chose to 
 add. The text books were mainly Aristotle's, or com- 
 mentaries upon him. Mathematics consisted in the ex- 
 planation of Euclid ; medical instruction in a commentary 
 on Galen or Hippocrates.' The professors' function be- 
 ing thus limited, there was little attempt at specializa- 
 tion, and often widely different subjects were " read " by 
 the same instructor. The student, besides attending 
 these lectures, had to defend theses, selected by himself 
 or by the professor, at numerous disputations, private 
 and public. These disputations were never supposed to 
 bring in new subject matter ; they were only to give the 
 student a chance of combining and recombining, of 
 practising and exercising, what he had acquired from 
 Aristotle or other authorities. This feeling of the finality 
 and sufficiency of what had been discovered by the 
 standard Greek writers was at once the most character- 
 
 'Puschniann, Dr. Theodor, A History of Medical Education from 
 the most Remote to the most Recent Times, pp. 333 sq. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 
 
 249 
 
 istic and most pernicious feature of the system. At 
 these disputations the professor presided, and saw that 
 the arguments proceeded along the strict lines laid down 
 by Aristotle's logic' 
 
 Throughout the universities there reigned a spirit op- 
 posed to freedom of thought which has received its mas- 
 terful expression in the Ratio Studiorum of Acquaviva, 
 the Jesuit general: 
 
 The teacher is not to permit any novel opinions or discussions 
 to be mooted ; nor to cite or allow others to cite the opinions 
 of an author not of known repute ; nor to teach or suffer to 
 be taught anything contrary to prevalent opinions of acknowl- 
 edged doctors current in the schools. Obsolete and false 
 opinions are not to be mentioned at all even for refutation 
 nor are objections to received teaching to be dwelt on at any 
 length. . . In philosophy Aristotle is always to be followed 
 and St. Thomas Aquinas generally. . . .' 
 
 Such traces of scientific interest as existed were to be 
 found in the faculty of medicine. Its professor taught 
 botany so far as it related to medicine ; some chemistry 
 in connection with the use of drugs. Anatomical and 
 physiological instruction consisted of the verbal analy- 
 sis of Galen, — but a barber might be present, who 
 
 ' Some rather startling subjects of disputations at Oxford were: 
 
 1601. An recte fecerint Graeci et Persae qui inter pocula deliber- 
 averint f 
 
 1602. An polita studiosorum scientia sit plebeis communicanda? 
 Neg. 
 
 1605. Utrum praestet in omnibus scientibus mediocrem esse guani in 
 
 una aliqua singularem? Neg. 
 1608. An guisguam sibi stultus videaturf 
 
 1608. An,{oeinina sit idonea auditrix moralis philosophiae? Neg. 
 1614. An animo sit tabula rasa? Aflf. 
 
 1 631. An cometae sunt mutaiionutn in republica praesagif AS. 
 'Quoted in Encycl. Brit, (nth ed.)—" Jesuits." 
 
250 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 would roughly dissect an animal or, on extremely rare 
 occasions, once or twice a year, the body of an executed 
 criminal which had been handed over to the medical 
 school. These dissections would serve as concrete 
 illustrations of what the professor was teaching, not 
 as tests by which the truth of what he was stating might 
 be proved.' 
 
 Everything connected with the external life of the 
 university — the appearance of professors and students, 
 the system of examinations, the formalities of obtaining 
 the degree — were matters of most punctilious regulations. 
 
 Such institutions could only become the home of 
 modern scientific study by adopting fundamental re- 
 forms, which may be classed under the following heads : 
 
 1. The universities must needs become secularized; for 
 only in a non-ecclesiastic atmosphere could the sciences 
 thrive. 
 
 2. The entire mode of instruction must needs be re- 
 formed. It was essential to substitute original observa- 
 tion for the old habit of reading standard texts and 
 conducting disputations. 
 
 3. The studies under the faculty of philosophy must 
 be reformed by minimizing the emphasis on the study of 
 logic, metaphysics and ancient languages. 
 
 4. The study of the various sciences must be estab- 
 lished as independent disciplines. This would imply 
 necessarily the establishment of a body of more special- 
 ized professors. 
 
 5. Experimentation and observation as a regular 
 method of study must be adopted. Hence the necessity 
 of establishing places for such study, namely, labora- 
 tories, botanical gardens, observatories, mineral and 
 zoological collections, etc. 
 
 ' Puschmann, op. cit., pp. 321 sqq. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 25 1 
 
 6. Current scientific discoveries must be incorporated 
 into the text books used by the student. 
 
 7. The study of medicine must be reformed, and 
 established entirely on the basis of anatomical experi- 
 mentation and study at the sick bed. 
 
 8. The faculty of theology must be relegated to a 
 secondary place. The faculty of philosophy should be 
 supplemented by, or metamorphosed into, a faculty of 
 science. 
 
 9. The vernacular must be substituted for Latin as the 
 vehicle of study and teaching. 
 
 10. University interest must reach out to the objects 
 of every-day life. 
 
 11. There must be freedom of conscience and of 
 thought in matters of philosophy and scientific inquiry. 
 
 12. There must be freedom of the press. 
 
 Did any of these conditions prevail at any universities 
 in the seventeenth century, and, if not, were such changes 
 even suggested? This will be the subject of inquiry in 
 this chapter. 
 
 As the university development varied considerably in 
 the different European countries, I shall take up sep- 
 arately certain matters of interest to us regarding 
 the university instruction in Italy, France, Germany, 
 England and the Netherlands. But I must confess 
 that in most cases I have been disappointed in the 
 amount of material I could discover. I have no reason 
 to think, however, that, were additional information 
 available, it would essentially alter the impressions one 
 gets of the role of the universities during this period. 
 
 ITALY 
 
 The Italian universities ih 1600 present many features 
 which would point to progress in the right direction. 
 
252 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 They were either under the control of wealthy municipal- 
 ities as, for example, the University of Padua under 
 Venice, that of Pisa under Florence; or they were like 
 the University of Bologna, so rich and independent that 
 they were relatively free from Church control. Affili- 
 ated with the liberal spirit of the north Italian city 
 republics, they had adopted a most liberal policy toward 
 professors and students. Neither creed nor country was 
 a bar to advancement ; and foreigners of every nation 
 were to be found among their professors. Padua was 
 most frequented by Germans, especially for medicine, 
 owing to the close commercial relations between Venice 
 and Germany, and Germans are found among the Rectors 
 there. Bologna also, with its famous law faculty, and 
 Siena had their large share of German students.' English 
 students were attracted in considerable numbers, and 
 biographies of prominent men of this time indicate that 
 many spent their Wander- and Lehrjahre in the great 
 institutions of northern Italy. This external sign of 
 their flourishing condition is substantiated by a conside- 
 ration of their internal policies. The wealth of the uni- 
 versities permitted a high degree of specialization, even 
 the existence of several chairs in a single field. A 
 " call " to Padua or Pisa was deemed the highest honor 
 in the professional world. 
 
 In the introduction of the experimental study of medi- 
 cine Italian universities were pioneers.'' Here the baleful 
 separation between surgery and medicine had never been 
 as complete as in other countries.^ Here, as we saw, 
 Vesalius first insisted on the dignity of anatomical in- 
 
 ' Eulenburg, Franz, Die Frequenz der Deutschen Universitaten . . . 
 Abhandlungen der Konigl. Sacks. Gesellschaft der Wissensckaften 
 {Philologisch-Historische Klasse, vol. xxiv), vol. liii, No. 2, p. 124. 
 
 'Foster, op. cit., p. 104. 'Puschman, op. cit., p. 336. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 253 
 
 vestigation. Padua had the first botanical garden and the 
 first anatomical theatre of the world,' and here as early 
 as 1578 clinical instruction at the bedside and the post 
 mortem examination, " if the season of the year permit- 
 ted," ° was begun. But these most progressive features 
 of medical instruction declined before 1600. Yet it is 
 interesting to note that even at the most liberal University 
 of Padua, Vesalius, for a long time did not dare to teach 
 what he really saw, but accommodated his statements to the 
 accepted dogmas of Galen. When he finally allowed 
 himself to state the facts, and even offered to prove his 
 statements publicly in the dissecting theatre, the opposi- 
 tion was so persistent, that in a fit of passion he tore up 
 his manuscripts and left the university for the court of 
 Spain.5 Similarly Galileo, lecturing on the theory of the 
 planets, persisted in expounding it according to the 
 Ptolemaic, noi the Copernican system, although the 
 latter was not as yet condemned. He wrote (1597) to 
 Kepler that while he believed in the Copernican hypo- 
 theses, his function as a professor demanded of him 
 nothing but to hand down the accepted opinions of the 
 past.* This, in a word, is a condemnation of the entire 
 system. 
 
 The condemnation of Galileo certainly served as a 
 severe check to the modern study of astronomy in the 
 universities. During the seventeenth century, however, 
 experimental physics was taught in Italian universities, 
 even at the Jesuit school at Bologna. The Jesuits 
 Riccioli and Grimaldi were skillful experimenters,^ and — 
 
 ' Minerva, Handbuch der Gelehrten Welt : Die Universitaten und 
 Hochschulen u.s.w. ihre Geschichte und Organisation, i, p. 326. 
 'Puschman, op. cit., p. 332. 'Foster, op. cit., pp. 14 sq. 
 
 •Quoted in Strauss, op. cit., xv. 
 ' Rosenberger, op. cit., ii, p. 130. 
 
254 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 a veritable triumph for Galileo's methods — tried to refute 
 him by experiment. Most of the Cimento scientists 
 were, before or after their shortlived membership in the 
 Academy, members of the faculties of Pisa, Padua or 
 Messena.' A chair of theoretical medicine was founded 
 for Malpighi in Bologna. Sanctorius (i 561-1626), the 
 first to use scales and thermometer for medical purposes, 
 taught at Padua ; Aselli, the discoverer of the lymphatic 
 system taught at Pavia.'' Such laboratory work as was 
 done, may have been performed mostly at the houses of 
 professors. Foster reports that B. Massari, Professor of 
 Medicine at Bologna in 1650, gathered his nine students 
 into a club. Chorus anatomicus, and carried on dissec- 
 tions, experimenting even on living animals.' 
 
 The only instance of the establishment of a regular 
 university laboratory has a peculiar importance for the 
 student of learned societies. Count Ludovico Ferdi- 
 nando Marsiglio,'' a science loving amateur in Bologna, 
 had collected in his travels many books, mechanisms 
 and instruments, in which he invested most of his inher- 
 itance, and at his house convened an academy of experi- 
 menters, Philosophi Inquieti. In 1690 he bequeathed 
 his house and laboratories to the University of Bologna, 
 to be perpetuated as an institution of research {Instituto 
 delta Scienze) for public instruction, to teach practical 
 science where hitherto only theoretical science had been 
 taught. A library, laboratory, physical cabinet, and ob- 
 servatory were established, employing an astromoner, a 
 mathematician, an experimental physicist, a chemist, and 
 a librarian. While the formal organization of this insti- 
 tute was not completed until 171 1, it belongs by its 
 
 • See Ch. III. " Foster, p. 48. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 87. *Mazzetti, op. cit., pp. 64 sqq. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 
 
 255 
 
 donation (1690) to the seventeenth century and is one 
 of the rare instances of the adoption of the experimental 
 method by a university. 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 In none of the larger countries do the universities in 
 the seventeenth century offer as unpromising a spectacle 
 as in France. The voluminous book of Jourdain, His- 
 toire de V University de Paris aux XVII et XVIII Sihcles, 
 gives a fairly complete picture of the University of Paris. 
 And in speaking of that University, we are practically 
 discussing those of all France, since the provincial uni- 
 versities, with one exception, were very insignificant.' 
 
 The University of Paris was, at the end of the six- 
 teenth century, by far the most important in Europe, 
 counting 30,000 students, more than all the Italian uni- 
 versities together. It obtained new statutes in 1600 
 from Henry IV, and these give an excellent idea of the 
 status of the University at the opening of the century." 
 Only Catholics were admitted ; the first function of the 
 rector of the University was to impress the importance 
 of religious duties upon the students. The costumes 
 were prescribed ; all conversation even among the stu- 
 dents was to be in Latin. For the students of philosophy 
 a two years' course of study was laid down, mostly 
 given over to Aristotle : In the first year his Logic, in 
 the second his Physics and Metaphysics, in the morn- 
 
 ' The exception was the University of Montpellier, next to Padua the 
 most famous medical school of Europe. I have not been able, how- 
 ever, to obtain any account of the development of this important insti- 
 tution during the seventeenth century. The fact that it had an ana- 
 tomical theatre in 1598 suggests that it was advancing at the same pace 
 as other great medical schools. Puschman, op. cit., p. 329. 
 
 'Jourdain, Charles, Histoire de V Universiti de Paris aux XVII et 
 XVIII Siicles, pp. 12 sqq. 
 
256 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 ing Euclid was to be read. In reading Aristotle, more 
 attention was to be paid to the thoughts than to the 
 text; "a strange conflict," says Jourdain, "between the 
 scholastic veneration of Aristotle and the modern critical 
 spirit." A definite number of disputations were re- 
 quired. The church ceremonies connected with taking 
 the degree were regulated in every detail. 
 
 The medical course consisted of two years' study, 
 though a four years' " residence " was required. The 
 student must study the " virtues " of plants ; read five 
 books of Galen on their properties, and make excursions 
 to the botanical garden. He must be present at two 
 dissections. The professors, dressed in long robes with 
 cap and chausses d'tcarlate, were to give two courses, 
 one in the morning on physiology, one in the evening 
 on pathology and therapeutics, reading Hippocrates and 
 Galen. Tv^o doctors were to visit the pharmacies and 
 read to the apothecaries a course on materia medica and 
 pharmacology ; two were to read to surgeons and barbers. 
 Then there followed a most detailed account of examina- 
 tions. To these, surgeons, of course, were not admitted,' 
 and an additional statute of 1607 emphasized this point 
 especially." 
 
 The condition of the university in the hundred years 
 following the appearance of these statutes must be re- 
 garded as one of utter stagnation. The most important 
 works edited under the auspices of its faculties were a 
 new edition in Greek and Latin of Aristotle, and an edi- 
 tion of Hippocrates and Galen.' The use of the ver- 
 
 ' Jourdain, op. cit., p. 15. 
 
 '"The science is not for those who have only hands; this must be left 
 to the judgment of physicians " (qu'ils doivent laisser d. juger aux 
 medecins) . Puschmann, op. cit., p. 337. ' 
 
 'Jourdain, op. cit., p. 136. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 257 
 
 nacular was suppressed whenever possible. Camus was 
 prohibited from lecturing in French in 1624,' but the 
 theses of a certain Alexis Trousset, submitted to the 
 faculty in French, were sustained by request of the 
 Queen Mother.' The censorship of books — a function 
 of the University — was most strict. The death penalty 
 was prescribed if the book were printed without authori- 
 zation (1626). Of course, there was a systematic sup- 
 pression of the liberty of thought. Sieur Jean Bitaud 
 offered the thesis: "that Aristotle's teaching in regard 
 to the four elements was wrong;" the thesis was torn 
 up, the author forced to leave within twenty-four hours, 
 and his license to teach cancelled." But still worse — a 
 decree was passed forbidding any one at the peril of his 
 life to hold or teach anything against the ancient authors, 
 or to hold disputations against what was accepted by the 
 faculty of theology. 
 
 The most famous and characteristic instance of the 
 university's dealing with " New Thought " was its treat- 
 ment of Descartes' teachings.^ Descartes had dedicated 
 his MHhode to the Sorbonne,* predicting that, if their 
 approval could be bestowed on his writings, the argu- 
 ments whereby he had sought to demonstrate the truth 
 of the existence of a God and the immortality of the 
 soul would then find such acceptance by both the learned 
 and the scientific world, that atheism would disappear 
 from among civilized mankind.^ Rome had not con- 
 
 ' Compayre, G., Histoire Critique des Doctrines de I' Education en 
 France depuis la 16 iime siicle, p. 422. 
 
 'Jourdain, op. cit., pp. 106 sq. 
 
 ''Ibid., pp. 233 sqq. 
 
 *" cunt tanta inhaereat omnium mentibus de vestra FacuUate opinio, 
 tantaeque sit auctoritatis Sorbonae nomen, ..." 
 
 ' "ut Athei contradicendi animum. deponant." 
 
258 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 demned him, the government had not proceeded against 
 him, but the school of theology of the university of 
 Paris found that Descartes' ideas were in conflict with 
 orthodox teaching, i. e., that his fundamental notions of 
 the supremacy of intellect were at variance with the doc- 
 trine of transubstantiation. Hence through their ac- 
 tivity Descartes' works were put on the Index (1663) 
 donee corrigantur. The funeral oration to be held by a 
 former rector of the University upon the transference 
 of Descartes' body to Paris was interdicted (1667). In 
 1669 the chair of philosophy was filled by a candidate 
 who upheld the thesis of the " excellence of peripatetic 
 philosophy against the novel teachings of Descartes." 
 In 1671 the Archbishop of Paris called to his presence 
 all members of the four faculties and addressed them as 
 follows : 
 
 It has come to the ears of the king that views, censured by 
 the faculty of theology and forbidden by the Parlement, 
 are spreading not only within the university but every- 
 where. He desires to stop the advance of opinions which 
 might bring confusion into the explanation of the mysteries 
 of the church. It is the duty of the professors to look to it that 
 no doctrine be taught nor allowed to get into the theses except 
 that admitted in the regulations and statutes of the university. 
 
 This was accepted by the faculties without a dissenting 
 voice." The opposition to Descartes was definitely for- 
 mulated in 1678. Here we find, "in physics it is forbidden 
 to deviate from the principles of the physics of Aristotle, 
 [and this almost one hundred years after Galileo's experi- 
 ments] accepted in the colleges, and attach oneself to the 
 new doctrines of Descartes." Then follows the enumer- 
 ation of nine objectionable points in Descartes' doctrine, 
 
 'Jourdain, op. Ht., p. 235. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 
 
 259 
 
 among them the error that actual extension is the essence 
 of matter, as this would interfere with the theory of the 
 Eucharist, etc. 
 
 In 1685 Gassendi's teachings were also forbidden,' and 
 in 1 69 1 another list of errors of Cartesianism and Jansen- 
 ism was drawn up, including among the errors Descartes' 
 doctrine, that the Christian may doubt' everything, even 
 the existence of God, and may deduce God's existence 
 from reason, and require that his faith agree with reason. 
 
 In enumerating these instances of opposition to free 
 thought, it seems strange that the university did not 
 formally condemn the " Copernican hypothesis." It 
 came, indeed, very near to this in 163 1 through the 
 influence of the astronomer Jean Baptiste Morin (1583- 
 1656); and it was due to the defence of the system and 
 refutation of Morin's reasons by facts advanced by Gas- 
 sendi, that the Sorbonne refrained from re-enforcing the 
 decree of the Roman Inquisition.'' 
 
 The university was most intolerant in religious mat- 
 ters.' When in 1638 the Rector was informed that the 
 medical doctorate was about to be attained by a Protest- 
 ant, son of the physician of the Duke of Orleans, he 
 formally objected and insisted on the exclusion of all 
 heretics from candidature. 
 
 The university was equally intolerant of all attempts to 
 reform the methods of education.* There had sprung up 
 a number of centers of learning which claimed to instruct 
 the youth in Latin, Greek and the sciences in a less 
 laborious, perhaps also less thorough, way than the 
 university. Against these the university waged a pro- 
 tracted war, in which King and Parlement were on its 
 
 ' Jourdain, op. cit., p. 269. ' Poggendorff, op. cit., p. 303. 
 
 'Jourdain, op. cit., p. 135. '■Ibid., p. 238. 
 
26o THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 side. The reasoning of the university against these "in- 
 novating colleges " is an odd bit of sophistry : 
 
 The chemists are working in vain, for they will never give us 
 gold resembling that created by nature. Fruits and flowers 
 whose growth is forced, will never have the taste and odor of 
 those matured at their natural season. Similarly in studies, 
 nature's course must be followed. The time she allots must 
 be well applied, but results must not be forced violently. In 
 view of this the course of instruction has been instituted.' 
 
 It never occurred to the speaker that his analogy be- 
 tween natural forces and the traditions of instruction 
 was somewhat weak. 
 
 The vitality of the university was exhausted through- 
 out the first half of the century in battling against Jan- 
 senism and against Jesuit control, to which it gradually 
 had to submit ; thus the history of this, once greatest of 
 universities, is one of insignificance and decline. As its 
 historian Jourdain admits, " it records no considerable 
 events or important improvements or great activity."^ 
 
 The new spirit and the new science of the seventeenth 
 century left hardly any traces upon the university curri- 
 culum. Chemistry was interdicted, physics remained 
 Aristotelian ; botany only was somewhat cultivated.^ A 
 botanical garden was established, and in 1646 a course in 
 
 'Jourdain, op. cit., p. 240. 
 
 'Jourdain, op. cit., p. 139. The criticisms of Louis XIV and Colbert 
 seem justified. Colbert insisted on the lay charter of the university, 
 deducing this from legal reasons; Louis XIV, with instinctive dislike 
 of ecclesiastics, and tendency to self-aggrandizement, insisted that 
 education was a civil function, belonging to the state; that the uni- 
 versity should look to the King, and not to the Pope as its head. He 
 had in mind (1667) a series of reforms along these lines, including 
 all universities. But these plans never reached execution. JoXirdain, 
 pp. 228 sq. 
 
 'Jourdain, op. cit., p. 21 (footnote). 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 26 1 
 
 botany was given. The greatest reform was the intro- 
 duction of polyclinical instruction in the medical faculty 
 in 1644, which was due to what might almost be called 
 an accident.' 
 
 Slight as was the scientific progress in the university, 
 there existed in Paris an institution which seemed pre- 
 destined as a home of the new sciences. In 15 18 Fran- 
 cis I had founded the College de France on the model of 
 the University of Louvain, to establish a home for 
 humanism, then bitterly opposed at the University of 
 Paris. Instruction was to be free of charge and open 
 to the public ; no degrees were given. Originally there 
 were two professors of Greek and two of Hebrew, later 
 there were added chairs of medicine, mathematics, phil- 
 osophy, eloquence, surgery, botany, Arabic and canon 
 
 'Puschmann, op. cit., pp. 412 sq. "This measure was adopted at 
 the instance of Theophraste Renaudot. This clever and enterprising 
 man, who founded the first loan office and the first bureau d'addresse 
 in Paris and who also edited the first French newspaper, the Gazette de 
 France, organized in conjunction with some medical colleagues an 
 institution of the nature of a dispensary for relieving poor patients 
 gratis. This brought him the ill will of the medical faculty, with whom 
 he lived in a continual feud, as he would not fall in with the exclusive 
 party spirit which animated that body. To such a point did they carry 
 their opposition that, after the death of Renaudot's patron, Richelieu, 
 his polyclinic, which had been a source of so much benefit to the poorer 
 population, was closed. But now the medical faculty itself had to 
 assume the duty of maintaining a similar institution. . . ." 
 
 " It was arranged that six doctors, three old and three young, should 
 be commissioned to examine and supply with medicines twice every 
 week in the £cole de Medecine such patients as applied; their services 
 were to be gratis. Surgical operations were either to be undertaken by 
 these doctors or else by a skillful surgeon. . . . Poor patients not in a 
 condition to come to the clinic were visited gratis in their dwellings. 
 The " bachelors," in other words the senior students of medicine, were 
 obliged to attend the polyclinical consultations, and were employed 
 there to write down the prescriptions dictated by the doctors and to 
 render other services. ..." 
 
262 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 law.' Here Peter Ramus had taught mathematics and his 
 traditions were cherished; Gassendi had held the profes- 
 sorship of mathematics until 1647," and Roberval had 
 occupied the same position on the interesting condition 
 that he should resign to anyone who could furnish better 
 solutions to the problems proposed — but he held it 
 throughout his life. Somehow, this institution declined 
 in the seventeenth century; the teaching posts became 
 well nigh hereditary,^ and it seems to have been of little 
 consequence in the later decades. 
 
 After this survey we can but repeat that in France the 
 prospects of science in the university and even in the 
 College de France were hardly brighter in 1700 than in 
 1600. 
 
 GERMANY 
 
 For the study of German universities in the seven- 
 teenth century there exists a masterly treatment by 
 Franz Eulenburg.* On the basis of a close examination 
 of the matriculation lists he reaches the most valuable 
 generalizations for this period.' 
 
 " This college was founded with only the promise of a building, and 
 the professors taught at various places. Jourdain, op. cit., p. 112. 
 
 'R. Wolf, op. cit., p. 327. 'Jourdain, op. cit., p. 115. 
 
 *Eulenburg, Franz, Die Frequemder Deutschen Universitaien. Ab- 
 handlungen der Koniglichen Sachsischen Gesellschaft der Wissen- 
 schaUen, liii. No. 11. The only disadvantage for us would seem that in 
 periodizing the history of German universities he puts the second period 
 from 1550 to 1700, thus embracing the fifty years before the seventeenth 
 century; but this is less important in view of his explanation that the 
 changes which afifected the universities, as they were to continue for a 
 century and a half following, viz., the establishment of the Protestant 
 universities, the commencement of Jesuit control of the Catholic univer- 
 sities, and the introduction of humanistic teaching, had occurred about 
 iSSo. 
 
 'Eulenburg, op. cit., p. 191 (footnote), complains of the difficult task 
 of studying the German universities : Leider fehlen auck hier bisher die 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 263 
 
 The number of German universities rose from seven- 
 teen to thirty-nine in this period, but this remarkable 
 increase was not the consequence of increased enthusiasm 
 for learning. It was due in part to the establishment of 
 centres of Lutheran and Calvinistic teaching, in part to 
 the decentralized condition of Germany, to the fact that 
 the ruler of even a small territory wanted his own uni- 
 versity.' Hence many of these German " universities " 
 were exceedingly poor,^ had the smallest possible num- 
 ber of professors and consequently an entire lack of differ- 
 entiation of instruction. The continued frequent migra- 
 tions of universities, such as occurred in earlier centuries, 
 indicate the absence of apparatus to be moved. 
 
 Of the thirty-nine universities, twenty-three were 
 Protestant, sixteen Catholic ; all of the latter were in the 
 hands of the Jesuits, with the exception of Salzburg 
 which was under the control of the Benedictines. 
 
 The religious element was dominant both in Protestant 
 and Catholic institutions, more if anything, in the former; 
 all administrative offices were in the hands of the theo- 
 logians, the conferring of degrees was a religious exer- 
 cise. The theological faculty in the Protestant university 
 was often so prominent a feature that the institution was 
 looked upon as a " theological seminary." Emphasis was 
 always placed on religious orthodoxy. In the statutes 
 of the University of Tiibingen, it was provided (1601) 
 
 geeigneten Vorarbeiien ; Paulsen behandelt nur den gelehrten Unter- 
 richt, Tholuck nur die Theologie, Stoltzel nur die Rechtswissenschaft. 
 
 ' The founding of the following universities is due to political ambi- 
 tions : Jena, Helmstadt, Giessen, Kassel, Densburg, Kiel ; to confes- 
 sional reasons : Dillingen, Wurzburg, Paderborn, Osnabruck, Altdorf. 
 Eulenburg, op. cit., p. 80. 
 
 'The most prominent of the universities were, in 1600, Wittenberg, 
 Leipzig and Helmstadt; after the Thirty Years' War, Leipzig, Jena, 
 Wittenberg. Eulenburg, op. cit., p. 81. 
 
264 Tfi^ R<^^B OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 that " no one should be admitted to the degree concern- 
 ing whose true religion there may be any doubt." " 
 Julius of Brunswick, founder of the University of Helm- 
 stadt, declared : " He who is not in harmony with the 
 teachings of the church is not to be tolerated ; it were 
 better, he go to the devil, than that he defile church and 
 school." ° In most universities, professors and students 
 were required to accept the religion of the university.^ 
 That only Catholics frequented Catholic institutions is a 
 fair assumption, although I found only that a confessio 
 fidei was required for Wiirzburg. The greatest liber- 
 ality prevailed at the Calvinistic University of Heidelberg. 
 Here the professors had only to take oath that they ac- 
 cepted the word of God. Its statutes of 1672 declare 
 that the professors must either abstain from entering into 
 religious controversies, or, if involved in them, develop in 
 their lectures both sides with historical reasons.* To add 
 an example of religious intolerance : Professor Weigel 
 (1679) was forced formally to revoke his demonstration 
 
 ' "Nulla tempore de cujus sincera religione dubitetur ad professionem 
 eligitur." Tholuck, Das akademische Leben im siebenzehnten Jahr- 
 hundert, p. 5. 
 
 ' ' ' Wer mil seiner Kirchenordnung nicht friedlich set, solle in Acad- 
 emia Julia nicht geduldet werden. Es set besser dieselbe fukre zum 
 Teufel, als dass sie Kirche und Schulen veruntreuten und befleckten 
 . . ." Reicke, Der Gelehrte in deutscher Vergangenheit, p. 102. 
 
 'Tholuck, op. cit., p. g. 
 
 How essential an element this acceptance 'was, is best shown from 
 the fact that in the matriculation tables nan juravit is noted against the 
 name of any who had omitted to give the oath to the established creed 
 (Eulenburg, op. cit., p. 96). 
 
 *The university even asked the Jew, Spinoza, to take the chair of 
 philosophy, "trusting he would not abuse the privilege of philosophy 
 for the overthrow of accepted religion." Spinoza refused, as he "did 
 not know within what bounds freedom of philosophizing should be re- 
 stricted so as not to interfere with public religion." Tholuck, op. cit., 
 p.p. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 265 
 
 of the mystery of the Trinity from principles of arith- 
 metic' A case of intolerance of new philosophic views, 
 closely related to religious intolerance may be noted 
 here. In Freiburg it was forbidden to refer to Peter 
 Ramus except for refutation, and it was decreed that 
 " no copy of his book must be found in the hands of a 
 student."" 
 
 There was according to Eulenburg a distinct line of 
 demarcation between the type of work in Protestant and 
 Catholic universities. The Protestant universities laid 
 emphasis on theology and law; they almost invariably 
 had a faculty of medicine. The Catholic very often 
 lacked the law and medical faculties, and persevered 
 mostly along lines of the faculty of philosophy.^ But 
 they had in common, many features which seem to-day 
 most objectionable; for instance, the insufiSciency of 
 professorial staff. The average number of professors in 
 the larger universities for the four faculties was, accord- 
 ing to Eulenburg, sixteen. In Heidelberg (1558) a 
 highly exceptional state existed, as there were three 
 professors in theology, four in law, two in medicine, 
 
 ' Tholuck, op. cit., p. 7. 
 
 ''Schreiber, Dr. Heinrich, Geschichte der Universitat Freiburg, ii, 
 p. 135- 
 
 'Eulenburg, op. cit., p. 200, has the following data for the relative 
 attendance of the four faculties: 
 
 1621-1700 for Strassburg, typical as the most progressive Protestant 
 university: 20 per cent; theology, 39 per cent, law, s per cent, medi- 
 cine, 36 per cent, philosophy. 
 
 1621-1700 for Wiirzburg, progressive Catholic university: 4 per cent, 
 theology, 7 per cent, law, S per cent, medicine, 51 per cent, philosophy, 
 24 per cent, rhetoric. 
 
 1621-17CO for Freiburg (Jesuit): 22 per cent, theology, 21 percent, 
 law, 2 per cent, medicine, 55 per cent, philosophy. 
 
 The astonishingly small number of students of medicine, the faculty 
 where natural sciences would be cultivated, should specially be noted. 
 
266 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 seven in philosophy, allowing one for Greek, Latin, logic, 
 ethics, physics and two for Hebrew and history.' Only 
 the largest universities could afiford so much specializa- 
 tion. Many of the Protestant foundations were so utterly 
 poor that there the most incredible combination of pro- 
 fessorial functions was made, for instance the same man 
 teaching mathematics and medicine.' In Leipzig every 
 professor read half a year, and the subject was decided 
 by lot.3 
 
 Reading Aristotle and holding disputations were the 
 main features of all instruction. The Methodica Facul- 
 tatis Artium (1616) in Freiburg proscribed "omnia ex 
 sententia Aristotelis et Peripateticorum doceantur." * In 
 Erfurt there were, for instance in 1634, four disputations 
 a year, in both theology and in medicine; monthly dis- 
 putations in law, and bi-weekly in philosophy.' 
 
 In this rather cheerless picture of German university 
 life there are some instances of progress which deserve 
 special attention, though Wegele very appropriately calls 
 it progress, "in dusserst gemassigtem Tempo."'' As to 
 establishment of scientific instruction, we find that often 
 the professor of medicine taught physics, which seems 
 an advance, from the point of view of physics.' In 1609 
 
 'Eulenburg, op. cit., p. 239. ^ Ibid., p. 251. 
 
 ^Ibid., p. 237. *Schreiber, op. cit., ii, p. 133. 
 
 'Bock, O., Die Reform der Universitat Erfurt, p. 77. 
 
 'Wegele, Franz X., Geschichte der Universitat Wurzburg, p. 346. 
 
 'Schreiber, op. cit., ii, p. 66. In Freiburg, physics was intrusted to 
 professors of medicine, propter professionum affinitatem et tenues 
 facultates academiae ; and Arnoldt, Historic der Konigsberger Uni- 
 versitat, p. 208, "of three members of the medical faculty, the first 
 should read chemica in addition to practica, and the second should read 
 physics as long as the philosophical faculty has no special professor of 
 physics, but if they have one, he should read anatomy in winter and 
 botany in the summer." 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 267 
 
 we hear of a special professor of chemistry in Mar- 
 burg — Johann Hartmann ; the first evidence of such a 
 professorship in Europe.' In 1660 we know that Pro- 
 fessors Caspar Schott and Athanasius Kircher gave 
 something like a course in experimental physics at 
 Wiirzburg, for they showed the Guericke experiments,' 
 but neither of them were modern physicists.' Papin 
 was for a while professor of physics in Marburg, 1695.' 
 The great and conspicuous instance of the cultivation 
 of science is the strangely progressive University of 
 Altdorf, a creation of the city of Ntirnburg.* Here 
 Professor Christian Sturm, who is already known to us 
 as the founder of the Collegium Curiosum sive Exper- 
 imentale, gave to his students in 1683 a course of ex- 
 perimental physics, comprising the experiments of the 
 Cimento, which he had witnessed in Florence. Here 
 Trew, a most progressive professor of astronomy, had 
 a tower remodeled into an observatory, and had pros- 
 perous burghers supply it with instruments.' Here, 
 most remarkable of all, in 1682 Moritz Hoffman built, 
 with the funds of the university, a well-equipped chem- 
 ical laboratory, the first chemical university-laboratory of 
 the world,* a great contrast to Erfurt, for instance, 
 
 ' Poggendorff , Biographisch-Literarisches Handworterbuch. 
 
 'Lexis, W., Die Universitdien im Deutschen Reich, p. 407. 
 
 " Rosenberger, op. cit., pp. 120 sq. Schott in 1657 believed in the 
 ' ' horror vacui ' ' and Rosenberger calls Kircher an old-fashioned 
 physicist who simply used some experimental methods. 
 
 *Giinther, S., Die tnathematischen und Naturwissenschaften an der 
 nUrnbergischen Universitat Altdorf. in Mitteilungen des Vereins fur 
 Geschichte der Stadt NUrnberg. Heft 3, p. 9. 
 
 '■Ibid., pp. 6 sq. 
 
 *See illustration No. 107 in Peters, Herman, Der Ariz und die 
 Heilkunde in Deutscher Vergangenheit. I add the description as given 
 by Giinther, S., op. cit., pp. 10 sqq. "Among its furnaces the chief 
 
268 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 where the professor announced a Promptuarium Pharm- 
 acopoesios Chymicae in privato Vulcani domestici Labor- 
 atorio.^ 
 
 Botany was somewhat more favored than chemistry or 
 physics. Throughout the century there is frequent men- 
 tion of the establishment of botanical gardens, so that 
 most universities seem to have been supplied with them.' 
 We also hear occasionally of botanical excursions.^ 
 
 In anatomical study the necessity of dissection was 
 recognized in many universities during the century, so 
 for instance, anatomical theatres were erected in Jena 
 (1629),* in Freiburg (1620),' in Altdorf (1637), and in 
 Wtirzburg (1675).* Of the anatomical theatre in Alt- 
 dorf pictures are extant.' In Wiirzburg the appoint- 
 
 are: first, to the right the Furnus docimasticus for the testing of 
 metals ; next to this the Balneum Mariae sive Vaporosum, serviceable 
 for all sorts of distillations ; next, a great open fire with bellows for melt- 
 ing metals ; then still another furnace, Piger Henricus, with two sand 
 baths on each side, which could both be heated at the same time; next, 
 on a table, a copper stove, Lampas Philosophiae, which was undoubt- 
 edly used to search for the great mystery of the philosopher's stone. 
 Between the third and fourth windows to the left there was a special 
 furnace for operations which required a particularly strong fire; and then 
 there was a furnace for distillation in an open fire; then a Furnus sub- 
 limatoricus for the preparatton of volatile substances ; finally, a great 
 open fire. Then in front two more furnaces, one of clay with a sand 
 bath for common distillations, the other of iron for the boiling of juices 
 or other liquids. This was movable. In the middle of the room was a 
 long table and a chair for purposes of instruction, in which the Chemiae 
 I?ocior dta.\t at the same time with theory and practice." 
 
 'Bock, O., op. cit., p. 71. 
 
 'Giinther, S., op. cit., p. 5. Gunther mentions, however, that the 
 University of Ingolstadt refused the establishment of a botanical garden. 
 
 'Schreiber, op. cit., ii, p. 152. * Lexis, W., op. cit., p. 579. 
 
 'Schreiber, op. cit., ii, p. 147. ' Wegele, F. X., op. cit., p. 385. 
 
 'Gunther, op. cit., pp. 14 sq., gives the following description; "There 
 was a dissection table to which water was conducted from the yard; the 
 benches were arranged in the form of an amphitheatre; skeletons stood 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 269 
 
 ment of a special demonstrator (1674) in anatomy, indi- 
 cates that anatomical studies commenced to flourish 
 there.' Indeed we hear of a popular insurrection in 1661 
 against rolfinking the body of a criminal — a word mean- 
 ing "dissecting" and coined from the name of Rolfink, 
 the Wiirzburg Professor of Anatomy." It would in this 
 connection be interesting to know how much practical 
 experience was required for the medical degree. But 
 for this I find only one reference in the case of Erfurt,* 
 where the student had to submit to a practical exam- 
 ination, in theatro anatomico, horto botanico, laboratorio 
 chymico et officina cum chirurgicatuni pharmaco. 
 
 We have so far followed the aussert gemassigt pro- 
 gress of the seventeenth century in the universities only 
 as regards their attention to the natural sciences. We 
 shall turn now to the other line along which progress 
 was made in Germany, namely, the establishment of the 
 vernacular. For the decisive move, the burning of the 
 Bull of this reformation, occurred in the seventeenth 
 century.* The Luther of this movement is one of 
 the most interesting personalities of German history, 
 and the hero of German university reform, Christian 
 Thomasius. 
 
 He was Professor of Law in the very conservative 
 
 about, and drawings made by the Altdorf Professor Hoffman. Besides 
 land this is most interesting], there was a great number of animal 
 skeletons, apparently used for comparative anatomy." 
 
 •Wegele, F. X., op. cit., p. 405. 
 
 •Puschmann, op. cit., pp. 14. sq. 'Bock, O., op. cit., p. 71. 
 
 •A solitary instance of a university lecture in German dates back to 
 1527, when Paracelsus in Basel addressed his students in the vernacular. 
 Eulenburg, op. cit., p. no, records an instance of the use of the ver- 
 nacular at the University of Rostock, where lectures were held in Low 
 German; and in Konigsberg (Arnoldt, op. cit., p. 83) lectures on men- 
 suration were given in the vernacular. 
 
270 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 University of Leipzig, when in 1679, he nailed on the 
 blackboard " never before so desecrated," a German 
 announcement of his lecture. Great uproar ensued; — 
 such a thing had never happened ; it seemed as if they 
 wanted in solemn procession to purify the board with 
 holy water/ Breaking away from all precedent, Thoma- 
 sius donned the modern garb, lectured in the German 
 language on so unlearned a topic as "Prejudices,"^ and 
 even dared to ofifend the faculty by handing to them a 
 book written in the vulgar tongue, which they of course 
 rejected.3 
 
 In his essay on Imitation of the French, Thomasius 
 claimed that " not the useless knowledge of Latin, but 
 usefurness in life is the test of man's wisdom. The 
 French, who have adopted their own language, should 
 be imitated. Thus, women would not be excluded from 
 all education." ■* 
 
 He never ceased his defiance of Latin. In 1687 he 
 wrote : 
 
 It is a principle of politics that the ruler must accustom his 
 subjects to the language of the ruler. This principle the pope 
 has adopted and requires all priests to use the Latin language 
 as a sign of their subjection to him. Ever since the time of 
 Charlemagne this superstition has been introduced into uni- 
 versities, and in order that they should be withdrawn from the 
 supremacy of temporal rulers, all professors and students 
 were included in Holy Orders. Thus Latin became the 
 language of the learned only because it was the language of 
 the parsons (Pfaffen).^ 
 
 ' Prutz, R., op. cit., pp. 306 sq. (excellent account). 
 ' Salomon, Ludwig, Geschichte des Deutschen Zeitungswesens, i, p. 92. 
 'Dernburg, H., Thomasius und die Universitdt Halle, p. 13. 
 * Thomasius, Christian, Vom Nachahmen der Franzosen. Deutsche 
 Literaiur Denkmale des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, No. 51, p. 25. 
 ' Hodermann quoting Thomasius. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 27 1 
 
 And again in his Vernunftlehre Thomasius wrote : 
 
 Foreign languages are of use in order to understand what has 
 been written in them ; but in those things which are realized 
 through the intelligence which is innate in all nations, knowl- 
 edge of foreign languages is not at all necessary. Wordly 
 wisdom is so easy a matter, that it can be understood by all 
 people ; Greek philosophers did not write in Hebrew but in 
 their mother tongue. . . ^ 
 
 Not satisfied with the blow he dealt scholasticism by 
 striking at Latin, Thomasius started in 1688 the publi- 
 cation of a periodical Monatsgesprache, Schertz- und 
 Ernsthafte, Verniinftige und Einfaeltige Gedanken 
 ueber allerhand lustige und nuetztiche Buecher und 
 Fragen. Its purpose was to ridicule the entire univer- 
 sity system.'' When, after several issues, Thomasius was 
 
 'Salomon, op. cit., i, pp. 92-97. 
 
 'The theme of the first issue and in a lesser degree of all the follow- 
 ing was an attack against the learned pedantry and the unreality of 
 university life. We have here a parallel to the Epistulae virorum 
 obscurorum in seventeenth-century garb. In a coach traveling from 
 Frankfort to Leipzig are four men: Augustin, a French traveler; Bene- 
 dict, a learned man ; Christoph, the practical business man voicing 
 Thomasius' ideas; and David, a schoolman, the soul of pedantry. The 
 conversation starts with a discussion of a book of Abraham a Sancta Clara. 
 David disapproving of such books written in the vernacular, "for their 
 loose morality," Christoph hints that this scrupulous man would not 
 refrain from reading " purissimam impurissimi scriptoris Martialis Latin- 
 itatem." Then he pours sarcasm on this scholastic attitude, and the 
 hairsplitting over whether King David took coflfee, or Dido smoked 
 tobacco with Aeneas. Only, he says, in Holland where there is liberty 
 of the press, can real learning flourish. As the discussion turns on the 
 Acta Eruditorutn the coach is upturned. The March issue made 
 fun of the four faculties and therefore the professors wanted Thomasius 
 discharged. Then the April paper turned with such bitterness against 
 Aristotle and the professors that nobody dared to reply. In the Decem- 
 ber number, Thomasius directed his arrows against the interference 
 and narrowness of a Danish court preacher who declared Lutheranism 
 
272 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 forced to leave Leipzig, he fled to the Elector (later 
 King) Frederick of Prussia, who granted him venia 
 legendi in Halle. This led in 1690 to the foundation of 
 the University of Halle, the first reformed university of 
 Germany, which became the model of all other university 
 reform. In the first lecture in Halle, which of course 
 was in German, Thomasius characteristically exclaimed : 
 " We are not bound to Aristotle, we shall not be accused 
 of Use majestk even if we make fun of the king of 
 philosophers, and philosopher of kings." 
 
 So, at the end of the seventeenth century, there ex- 
 isted in Germany, one centre at least, at the University 
 of Halle, where the vernacular and anti-Aristotleianism 
 were cherished, and one, at the University of Altdorf, 
 where pure science had found a place of encouragement. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 A review of the English universities during the seven- 
 teenth century presents to us almost insurmountable 
 difficulties, because in all accounts of their activities 
 stress is laid almost exclusively upon the political and 
 religious features of their history. Of course the uni- 
 versities were in such close and direct connection with 
 the political disturbances and endless religious wrang- 
 lings of the Stuart and Cromwell period that this atti- 
 tude of the historian is perhaps natural, and is in itself an 
 important commentary upon the situation. On the other 
 
 the one and only sound religion (Thomasius was Lutheran}. This 
 caused him to lose his position, and the license to continue to publish 
 his journal, and exposed him to imprisonment. Salomon, op. cit., i, 
 92-97. 
 
 ' I find the following statement in the Register of the University of 
 Oar/orrf (1571-1622), vol. ii, pt. I, p. 227: " The question presents itself: 
 How did the old course give way to the present one? Its stages are 
 without doubt recorded in successive codes of statutes. It seems strange 
 it should still await an historian." 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 273 
 
 hand many criticisms of the university system were pub- 
 lished in England during the century, and these not only 
 give us information in regard to the alleged defects of 
 the system but also make clear that there were men who 
 recognized them and tried to concentrate public attention 
 upon their reformation. 
 
 England in 1600 had its two great colleges, Oxford 
 and Cambridge ; ' Scotland had four universities, Aber- 
 deen, St, Andrews, Glasgow, Edinburgh; Ireland had 
 one university, that of Dublin. The general features of 
 these English colleges in 1600 as established by the 
 Elizabethan statutes in 1570,' were such as prevailed 
 generally throughout Europe.^ 
 
 Gauging the prevalent interest in science by the faculty 
 of medicine, which may be called the barometer of scien- 
 tific interest, we find, according to the Register oi Oxford, 
 that it was at the lowest ebb conceivable ; '• it was no 
 more than the cerement of dead learning, and had lost 
 all touch with professional study. Only a small number 
 of students attached themselves to this faculty; indeed 
 it would have become extinct but for the existence of 
 the Regius professorship, endowed by Henry VIII, and 
 of fellowships in medicine in the various colleges.'' It 
 
 'Gresham College, which has been discussed above, as well as the 
 Royal College of Physicians, occupied a peculiar position. The latter 
 was throughout the century the home and advocate of truly scientific 
 methods, and produced, in Harvey, Willis and Sydenham, men who 
 took a leading place in their science throughout Europe. 
 
 '^Register of the University of Oxford, ii, pt. i, p. 107. 
 
 'The main distinction was that nowhere else, perhaps, was the eccle- 
 siastic element so very prominent a feature. During the religious 
 controversies of the seventeenth century, the universities were con- 
 stantly drawn into, and not infrequently became the center of the 
 wrangling. 
 
 ^Register of the University of Oxford, ii, pt. i, p. 123. 
 
274 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 was only after 1626 that a slight knowledge of anatomy 
 was required from the medical students at Oxford,' and 
 even then frequent dispensations are registered." The 
 level of medical instruction at Oxford ^ may be seen from 
 the titles of a few disputations : 
 
 1605. Incantatio non valet ad curam morbi. 
 
 1608. An vita hominis sine respiratione consistere possit. 
 
 Afr. 
 1608. An omnes corporis partes sanguine nutriantur. Neg. 
 161 1. Aegri opinio de medico facit ad salutem. 
 161 1. Medicamenta non sunt cibis conmiscenda. 
 1613. An liceat morbum morbo curare ? 
 1615. An ciborum varietas sit praeferenda cibo simplici ? 
 
 Neg. 
 1618. An mulieres a melancholia magis vexentur quam 
 
 viri? Aff/ 
 
 Following the development of the universities mainly 
 in their relations to natural sciences, we find the first 
 significant innovation in Oxford in 1619. Savile, who 
 had lectured gratuitously at Oxford on Greek and geom- 
 etry, endowed two professorships, one of geometry, and 
 one of astronomy, enjoining upon the lecturer to teach 
 optics, and to mention the Copernican system.^ A sim- 
 ilar endowment was made by Savile's son-in-law, William 
 
 ' Perhaps owing to the establishment of the Tomlins Professorship of 
 Anatomy, 1624. 
 
 ' Register of the University of Oxford, pt. I, p. 123. 
 
 'As to medical instruction at Cambridge, I have no definite in- 
 formation, but assume that a similar state prevailed. 
 
 * Register of the University of Oxford, ii, pt. i, p. 191. 
 
 'The holders of the Savilian Professorships during the century were: 
 in Geometry— Briggs, Wallis, Halley; in Astronomy — Bainbridge, 
 Greaves, Seth Ward, Wren, E. Bernard, Bavid Gregory, John Keil. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 275 
 
 Sedley," in founding a lectureship in natural philosophy 
 at Oxford (1621).' 
 
 In 1636, Archbishop Laud, as Chancellor of Oxford, 
 promulgated the Laudian Statutes, which were destined 
 to remain in force at Oxford until 1854. He threw his 
 influence upon the side of conservatism,' and the innova- 
 tions his. statutes introduced were distinctly reactionary : 
 
 The importance of dialectics and the authority of Aristotle 
 were to be strenuously inculcated, it being: especially enjoined 
 that . . . Regent should . . . deliver an address expressly de- 
 signed to vindicate the above features. . . In the B. A. course 
 the subjects were to include grammar, rhetoric, Aristotle's 
 ethics, politics, and economics; logic, moral philosophy, 
 geometry and Greek. In the M. A. course, more geometry, 
 more Greek, together with astronomy, metaphysics, natural 
 philosophy and Hebrew. All students admitted to a degree 
 should give evidence of possessing a good command of cor- 
 rect colloquial Latin.* 
 
 ' Sedleian Professors of Natural Philosophy during the century were 
 Lap worth, Edwards, Crosse, Willis, Millington. 
 
 'Mullinger, op. cit., iii, p. 84. For Cambridge there falls into this 
 period the founding of a lectureship which, although not in science, is 
 of interest to us on account of its "lay character." Lord Brooks 
 endowed a lectureship in history, ' ' open to foreigners but not any one 
 in holie orders, because this realm affords many preferments for divines, 
 few or none to professors of profane learning, the use and application 
 whereof to the practice of life is the maine end and scope of this found- 
 ation." 
 
 'MuUinger, op. cit., iii, p. 91. " His views strongly resembled, . . . 
 were in some respects almost identical with the theory of education 
 advocated by the Jesuits. He was desirous to widen the field of knowl- 
 edge of the universities, to render their treatment of the ancient trivium 
 and quadrivium more intelligent and thorough, and more especially to 
 give to philology an importance and prominence far greater than it had 
 as yet attained. . . . But here like the Jesuits, he halted." 
 
 ♦MuUinger, op. cit., iii, p. I3S- 
 
276 THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 These Laudian Statutes were adopted in the University of 
 Dublin in 1637.' " The first class studied Logic, especially 
 the Isagoge of Porphyry, which was required to be read 
 over twice at least in the year. The lecturer of the 
 second class explained some part of Aristotle's Organon 
 as briefly as possible, not allowing himself to wander 
 from the context into commentaries upon the text. The 
 lecturer of the Junior Sophisters read with his class some 
 portions of the Physics of Aristotle. The lecturer of 
 the Senior Sophister (fourth class) took up the Meta- 
 physics of Aristotle, except in Lent Term when he read 
 with his class the Nichomachean Ethics."'' 
 
 Similar regulations I find for the University of Glas- 
 gow.' The third year was given to Aristotle's Logic, 
 the fourth year to his Ethics, Politics and Economics, 
 Metaphysics and to the first two books of his Physics ; 
 the fifth year to the remaining books of the Physics.* 
 These regulations remained in force until 1688. 
 
 Latin was used exclusively. In 1649 "the Committee 
 for regulating Universities " decreed that only Latin or 
 Greek(!) was to be used in colloquial discourse among 
 students. No other language was to be spoken by any 
 
 'Stubbs, J. W., The History of the University of Dublin (1591-1800), 
 p. 139. " In the Statutes prepared by Laud, very express directions are 
 given with respect to the details of the education to be imparted. These 
 appear to be in harmony with the teaching which was prevalent from 
 the first foundation of the College; and although they were obsolete be- 
 fore they were finally repealed, they left an impress upon the studies 
 pursued in the College for more than a century." 
 
 'Ibid., p. 140. 
 
 'Coutts, James, The History of the University of Glasgow (l^^\-\yaii) , 
 p. 139. "It is remarkable how much of the curriculum in 1641 is still 
 dominated by Aristotle." 
 
 '■Ibid., p. hi; p. loi. The reading of a Compendium on Anatomy 
 was, however, required in the fifth class at Glasgow. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 277 
 
 fellow, scholar or student whatsoever.'" The fact that 
 all textbooks of mathematics and physics throughout 
 the seventeenth century were in Latin is a convincing 
 proof of the persistence of this custom. 
 
 The most enlightening commentary on the condition 
 of English universities in the first quarter of the century 
 is Francis Bacon's criticism of the system. As he was a 
 graduate of Cambridge, his views on universities in 
 general were formed from conditions prevailing in his 
 own Alma Mater. Bacon found that the whole univer- 
 sity system needed readjustment.^^ He directed his at- 
 tacks again and again against the professors who saw their 
 task merely in commenting upon the accepted knowl- 
 edge,3 and who felt it their duty to impress their students 
 with its finality,* rather than lead them along new lines 
 of inquiry.^ He explained that sciences could not ad- 
 
 ' Mullinger op. cit., iii, p. 368. 
 
 'Bacon's Of the Advancement of Learning : "As . . . usages and 
 orders of the universities were derived from more obscure times, it is 
 the more requisite they be re-examined." 
 
 ^Ibid.: "For whereas the more constant and devoted kind of pro- 
 fessor of any science ought to make some addition to their science, they 
 convert their labors ... to be a profound interpreter or commenter, a 
 methodical compounder; or abridger." 
 
 Bacon's Novum Organum., xc: "Again in the customs and institu- 
 tions of schools, academies, colleges and similar bodies destined for the 
 abode of learned men and the cultivation of learning, everything is found 
 adverse to the progress of science. . . . For the studies of men in these 
 places are confined, and, as it were, imprisoned in the writings of cer- 
 tain authors, from whom if any man dissent, he is straight way arraigned 
 as a turbulent person or innovator." 
 
 '■Ibid., Ixxxvi: "They set (their truths) forth with such ambition 
 and parade ... as if they were complete in all parts and finished." 
 
 ^BiiCon's Author's Preface to the Great Jnstaaration : "I. . .seek 
 ... to lead them to things themselves . that they may see for them- 
 selves what they have . . what they can add . . to the common 
 stock." 
 
278 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 vance because they had not been considered as special 
 branches of inquiry," because instruments had not been 
 contrived,' and the method of experimentation had been 
 scorned by university men.^ Yet Bacon dedicated both 
 his Novum Organum and De Augmentis to Cambridge 
 University as "its son and nursling, repaying his in- 
 debtedness as far as was in his power, inasmuch as he 
 
 'Bacon's Of the Advancement of Learning : "Among so many col- 
 leges in Europe, I find it strange that they are all dedicated to profes- 
 sions, and none left free to arts and sciences at large." 
 
 Bacon's Novum Organum, Ixxx : "Natural philosophy even among 
 those who have attended to it, has scarcely ever possessed a disengaged 
 whole man; but it has been merely a passage and bridge to something 
 else. So this great mother of sciences has with strange indignity been 
 degraded to the office of a servant ; having to attend on the business of 
 medicine or mathematics, or likewise to wash and imbue youthful and 
 unripe wits with a sort of first dye in order that they may be the fitter 
 to receive another afterward. . . . For want of this, astronomy, optics 
 . . . mechanical arts, medicine . . altogether lack profoundness and 
 merely glide along the surface." 
 
 ' Bacon's Of the Advancement of Learning : "Another defect I note 
 wherein I shall need some alchemist to help me, who call upon men to 
 sell their books and build furnaces. . . . Unto . . . study of many sci- 
 ences, specially natural philosophy and physics, books be not only the 
 instruments ; wherein there . will be hardly any main proficience in 
 the disclosing of nature except there be some allowance for expenses 
 about experiments, appertaining to Vulcan or Daedalus, furnace or en- 
 gine . . . you must allow the spials or intelligencers of nature to bring 
 in their bills ..." 
 
 'Bacon's Novum Organum, Ixxxiii: "(There exists) an opinion . . . 
 that the dignity of the human mind is impaired by . . intercourse with 
 experiments . . especially as they are laborious to search, ignoble to 
 meditate, harsh to deliver, illiberal to practise, infinite in number and 
 minute in subtility. So that it . comes to this . that . expe- 
 rience . is rejected with disdain." 
 
 Bacon's Of the Advancement of Learning : " It is esteemed a kind of 
 dishonor unto learning to descend to inquiry or meditation upon mat- 
 ters mechanical, except they be such as may be thought secrets, rarities 
 and special subtilties." 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 279 
 
 imbibed his first draught of knowledge at its sources." ' 
 It may be questioned whether this was a sign of devo- 
 tion, or an attempt to impress his ideas more forcibly on 
 his Alma Mater." 
 
 Indeed the decades during which Bacon's works were 
 written mark the lowest level Cambridge reached. Ball 
 says that while up to 1600 there was a succession of 
 mathematicians at Cambridge, the next thirty years form 
 a blank in the history of that science.' Students found 
 very discouraging conditions. Horrox, who wanted to 
 study astronomy in 1633, had to do so from books as 
 this subject was not offered at Cambridge. Wallis left 
 the following account of his studies (1635):* 
 
 Mathematics were scarce looked upon as Academic studies, 
 but rather Mechanical, and among- more than two hundred 
 students in our college, I do not know of any two (perhaps 
 not any) who had more of mathematics than I (if so much) 
 which was then but little, and but very few in that whole 
 University. For the study of mathematics was at that time 
 more cultivated in London than in the Universities. 
 
 Further it is of interest to note that after Wallis, through 
 his own efforts and talent, had acquired his great knowl- 
 edge of mathematics, he had to leave Cambridge, — because 
 that study had died out there,'' — and accept the Savilian 
 
 'MuUinger, James Bass, op. cii., iii, p. 67. 
 
 ^This interpretation would be borne out by the fact that in Bacon's 
 will appeared the design of founding at Cambridge and Oxford a lec- 
 tureship in natural philosophy, ' ' with science in general thereunto be- 
 longing, the professor to be appointed without difference, whether a 
 stranger but not professed in divinity, law or physic." The paucity of 
 the funds he left prevented, however, the establishment of these endow- 
 ments. 
 
 •Ball, W. W., History of the Study of Mathematics in Cambridge, 
 P 35- 
 
 * MuUinger, op. cit., iii, p. 462. 
 
28o THE ROLE OP THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 professorship of geometry at Oxford (1649-1702). His 
 colleague there in astronomy was another Cambridge 
 man, Seth Ward, who — as was said above — had been 
 expelled from his Alma Mater for refusing to subscribe 
 to the " League and Covenant." ' 
 
 Thus Oxford gained what Cambridge lost. Indeed, 
 at Oxford, in the middle of the century a remarkable set 
 of men held professorships, most of whom we mentioned 
 before as belonging to the Invisible College : " Wallis, 
 Ward, John Wilkins, warden of Wardham, Willis, Rooke, 
 Wren and otheis. We have seen these men, experi- 
 menting in their own quarters, at their own expense. 
 It is important for us to decide whether the private in- 
 vestigations of these scientists in collaboration with men 
 like Boyle, unaffiliated with the university, are to be 
 credited to the university or not. That their efforts 
 were really disconnected with Oxford University is 
 shown by the fact that, when these individual students 
 withdrew from Oxford, the cause of science was utterly 
 deserted, and Uffenbach in 17 10, visiting the "chemical 
 laboratory fitted for the original Royal Society, finds the 
 stoves in fair condition, but everything else in disorder 
 and dirt." 3 
 
 In the middle of the century there was a flood of criti- 
 cisms levelled against the university system, some of 
 which are truly interesting and bear directly upon the 
 query we have raised. There was John Hall's Humble 
 Motion to the Parliament of England concerning the 
 Advancement of Learning and Reformation of Universi- 
 ties (1649),* in which is found the following significant 
 statement : 
 
 ' Ball, op. cit., p. 37. ' See above, Ch. IV. 
 
 'Wordsworth, op. cit., p. 176. 
 
 'MuUinger, op. cit., iii, p. 371. " John Hall's indictment is certainly 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 281 
 
 I have ever expected from an university, that though all men 
 cannot leame all things, yet they should be able to teach all 
 things to all men ; and be able either to attract knowing men 
 from abroad out of their owne wealth, or at least be able to 
 make an exchange. But how far short come we of this, 
 though I acknowledge some differences between our universi- 
 ties ? We have hardly professours for the three principall 
 faculties, and these but lazily read, — and carelessly followed. 
 Where have we anything to do with Chimistry, which hath 
 snatcht the Keyes of Nature from the other sects of philosophy 
 by her multiplied experiences? Where have we constant read- 
 ing upon either quick or dead anatomies, or occular demon- 
 strations of herbes? Where any manual demonstrations of 
 Mathematicall theorems or instruments? Where a promotion 
 of their experiences which if right carried on, would multiply 
 even to astonishment? ' 
 
 Then there was the interesting invective against Cam- 
 bridge of William Dell, master of Caius College, 1649,° 
 and the famous criticism in Hobbes's Leviathan? The 
 
 entitled to be considered . . valuable in respect of precision and as 
 giving forcible utterance to convictions already lurking in the mind of 
 not a few who had neither the courage nor ability to set them forth with 
 equal force and plainness." 
 
 'Hall, John, op. cit., pp. 4 sq. 
 
 * Dell appears as one of the earliest English writers to insist on the 
 education of the people as the foremost duty of the State, as distin- 
 guished from the Church. In schools he advised that there should be 
 a more extended range of subjects; pupils should be taught first to read 
 their native tongues. In universities he wanted mathematics to be held 
 in good esteem, and physics and law to be studied. He thought it 
 would be advantageous to the people to have in every great town, as in 
 London, York, etc., at least one university or college which should be 
 supported by the state. MuUinger, op. cit., iii, pp. 454 sqq. 
 
 ' Hobbs, sent abroad, saw the worthlessness of much of the scholastic 
 philosophy he learned in Oxford, and in the Leviathan assailed the sys- 
 tem of universities as originally founded for the support of papal vs. civil 
 authority, and as working social mischief by their adherence to the old 
 learning. MuUinger, op. cit., iii, p. 433. 
 
282 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 pamphlet, however, which acquired the most elaborate 
 reputation was Webster's Academiarum Examen, or the 
 Examination of Academies.^ 
 
 Webster directs what he has to say as a critic chiefly to the 
 existingf " customs and methods " of the Schools with their 
 scholastic exercises, urging, as a serious objection, that in all 
 such exercises "they make use of the Latin tongue .... 
 whereby the way to attain Knowledge is made more difficult 
 and the time more tedious, and so we almost become strangers 
 to our own mother tongue." The stress of his criticism, how- 
 ever, is concerned with the defects of the existing curriculum 
 rather than its abuses, and here the justice of his comments is 
 so obvious, that it seems difficult to understand how more 
 than another century was yet to pass away, before his sug- 
 gestions were carried, even partially, into effect. He dwells 
 upon the desirability and excellence of physical studies ; he 
 deplores the neglect of mathematics ; the " sloathfulness and 
 negligence of the professors and artists," as a body, describ- 
 ing them as ignorant " that their scrutiny should be through 
 the whole theatre of nature," and that "their only study and 
 labour ought to be to acquire and find out salves for every 
 sore and medicines for every malady, and not to be enchained 
 with the formal prescriptions of schools. Halls, colleges, or 
 masters." Then he turns to extol that great discovery of 
 Harvey, " our never sufficiently honoured countryman," and 
 expresses his regret that it has not been more generally util- 
 ized. He dwells with like emphasis on the merits of Gilbert's 
 treatise, De Magneto. " What shall I say," he asks, " of the 
 
 '" Wherein is discussed and examined the Matter, Method and Cus- 
 tomes of Academick and Scholastic Learning, and the insufficiency 
 thereof discovered and laid open; also some expedients proposed for the 
 reforming of Schools and the perfecting and promoting of all kinds of 
 Science. Offered to judgment of all those that love the proficience of 
 Arts and Sciences and the Advancement of Learning." (London, 
 1654.) 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 
 
 283 
 
 atomical learning- revived by that noble and indefatigable 
 person, Renatus Des Cartes?' 
 
 The reply to this attack is, for our study, of greatest 
 importance, because it was written by Bishop John 
 Wilkins and Seth Ward and is, as it were, a declaration 
 of faith from the group of scientists we met before as 
 the Invisible College, or Oxford Society.'' Webster's 
 attack was regarded as utter folly by these men. Wil- 
 kins undertook to reply anonymously to Webster's in- 
 sinuation that Aristotle still was idolized at the uni- 
 versities, 
 
 whereas those that understand those places, do know that there 
 is not to be wished a more general liberty in point of judg- 
 ment or debate than what is here allowed. So that there is 
 scarce any hypothesis, which hath been formerly or lately en- 
 tertained of judicious men, and seems to have in it any clear- 
 ness or consistency, but hath here its strenuous assertours, as 
 the atomical and magneticall in philosophy, the Copernican 
 in astronomy, etc. And though we do very much honour 
 Aristotle, yet are we so farre from being tyed up to his 
 opinions, that persons of all conditions amongst us take liberty 
 to dissent from him, and to declare against him, according as 
 any contrary evidence doth engage them, being ready to fol- 
 low the Banner of Truth by whomsoever it shall be lifted up.' 
 
 Ward replied to the more specific attack, that sciences 
 were not fostered at the two universities, — with the 
 bitterness of one who felt that his own life's work was 
 
 'Quoted from MuUinger, op. cit., iii, p. 4S8. 
 
 ' VindicicB Academiarum containing some brief e animadversions upon 
 Mr. Webster's Book stiled. The Examination of Academies. Together 
 with an Appendix concerning what M. Hobbe and M. Dell have pub- 
 lished on this Argument. 
 
 ^Ibid., p. 2. 
 
284 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 being overlooked. He objected strenuously to pamph- 
 leteers, who under pretext of giving effect to the teach- 
 ings of Bacon dared to urge that 
 
 instead of verball exercises we should set upon experiments 
 and observations, that we should lay aside our Disputations 
 and Declamations and Public Lectures and betake ourselves 
 to Agriculture, Mechanicks, Chymystry, and the like. . . . 
 Our Academies are of a more general and comprehensive in- 
 stitution, and as there is a provision here made that whoso- 
 ever will be excellent in any kind, in any art, science or lan- 
 guage, may here receive assistance, and be led by the hand, 
 till he come to be excellent : so is there provision likewise 
 that men be not forced into particular ways but may receive 
 an institution variously answerable to their genius and design.' 
 
 Yet Ward admitted that 
 
 it cannot be denied but this (experimentation) is the way and 
 the only way to perfect Natural Philosophy and Medicine ; so 
 that whosoever intend to professe the one or the other, are to 
 take that course and I have not neglected occasionally to tell 
 the world that this way is persued amongst us. ' 
 
 He would thus imply that regular courses in science 
 were given at Oxford."" If so, we have failed to find any 
 trace of them. It maybe assumed that the excellent work 
 of these pioneers was extra collegium and does not 
 affect the justice of Webster's criticism as subsequent 
 years amply showed.' 
 
 ^Vindiciae, pp. 49 sq. 
 
 'Mullinger, op. cit., iii, p. 466, in a footnote adjoins: "We accord- 
 ingly here have it on unimpeachable authority of a professor of the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford; 1654, that at that time any student desirous of spe- 
 cializing in natural science (z. e., medicine, chemistry or mineralogy) 
 with a view to a professional career, was allowed to do so." 
 
 ' There was joined to the reply to Webster, an answer to the criticism 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 285 
 
 But we must leave these criticisms, where our sym- 
 pathy seems inevitably on the side of the critics, to say a 
 few words about the state of science at the universities in 
 the second half of the century. At Oxford, we have seen, 
 that in 1659 ^^1 chemical instruction was given by Peter 
 Stahl, the Strassburg chemist, whom Boyle had induced 
 to settle in his house, without any afifiliation with the 
 University.' For 1671 I find a letter showing dissatisfac- 
 tion at the little aid Oxford gave to science in spite of 
 the interest of the students. 
 
 The mathematics (in Oxford) I own are but just enoug;h to 
 admire Dr. Wallis here . . . and the remainder of my study is 
 litteral, and beside the fame and regard of this age, and 
 inferior in the nature of things to real learning. . . . And this 
 I must always affirm for the honour of my mother, the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford : if her children had the good utensils which 
 adorn colleges of Jesuits abroad, the world would not long 
 want good proof of their ingenuity. Patrons and tools are 
 rather wanting, than willing and fit workmen. We lack a 
 corporation, a set of grinders of glasses, instrument makers, 
 operators . . . that experiments may be well managed in this 
 place which otherwise, by reason of our living altogether and 
 our freedom from intricacies and vexation of the world, is 
 most convenient for such a design." 
 
 Another evidence that Oxford students were interested 
 
 of Hobbes, which forms but a small chapter in the protracted contro- 
 versy of Ward and his friends with the author of the Leviathan; also a 
 venomous reply to Dell's charge that OxfoJ-d and Cambridge were 
 monopolizing education, in which Ward asserted absurdly enough that 
 such a statement implied an unwarranted criticism of the sovereign 
 magistracy of the nation. Vindiciae, p. 63. 
 
 'Clark, Andrew, op. cit., vol. i, p. 290. 
 
 ' Rigaud, S. J., op. cit., vol. i. p. 158. (Dr. E. Bernard writing to 
 Collins.) 
 
286 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 but that the university supplied no aid is the following 
 letter of Dr. Beal to Boyle (Nov. 27th 1671.): 
 
 At my request a young: Oxonian prepared me a list of fit cap- 
 able and hopeful persons addicted to the design of the Royal 
 Society, and willing to entertain correspondances and to assist 
 them. They seemed to me by their qualifications and num- 
 ber very considerable, some in every college and every hall, - 
 .... There are excellent professors, some lecturers and very 
 many students of useful arts amongst them. And in time 
 they may have there meetings in some of their public 
 schools.' 
 
 Yet we are told that the Oxford pulpit declared Boyle's 
 researches were destroying religion and his experiments 
 undermining the universities." Similarly Wilkins was 
 preached at from the unversity pulpit as a "mere moral 
 man without power of godliness."^ 
 
 But if in 1671 Oxford had not much science, it had at 
 least some of the odium attached by conservatives to the 
 thought of innovation. Wordsworth relates as follows : 
 
 1671 Dr. John Eachard in " Some observations in answer to 
 enquiry into grounds of occasion of Contempt of Clergy " 
 (pp. 142-7), gives an amusing sketch of a pert young acad- 
 emical sciolist : " And in the first place comes rattling home 
 from the university the pert Sophomore with his atoms and 
 globuli ; as full of defiance of all country parsons, let them 
 never be so learned and prudent, and as confident and magis- 
 terial as if he had been prosecutor at the first Council at 
 Nice, . . . They are all so sottish and stupid as not to sell all 
 their libraries and send presently away for a whole wagon full 
 
 'Birch, Thomas, TAe Works of Robert Boyle, vol. v, p. 498. 
 'White, Andrew "£>., A History of the Warfare of Science with The- 
 ology in Christendom, vol. i, p. 405. 
 •Wells, op. cit.. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 
 
 287 
 
 of new Philosophy. I'll tell you, Sir, says one of these small 
 whiflers — the University is strangely altered since you were 
 there, we are grown strangely inquisitive and ingenious. I 
 pray Sir, how went the business of motion in your days? We 
 hold it all now to be violent. ..." , 
 
 Then follows a slash at younger members of Gresham Col- 
 lege who ask " to what purpose is it to preach to people and 
 go about to save them, without a telescope or glass for 
 Fleas." ' 
 
 In 1683 the Ashmolean Museum was furnished with a 
 chemical laboratory — officina chymica — and Dr. Plot, 
 its first curator, was ultimately appointed Professor of 
 Chemistry, In an account of Worcester Hall I find that 
 in 1698 courses in anatomy, chemistry and botany were 
 given there. The anatomist, however, was in his lec- 
 tures to comment on the first verses of the twelfth chap- 
 ter of Ecclesiastes in order to explain his anatomical 
 teachings. The chemist gave four lectures on the prin- 
 ciples of chemistry and twelve in experimental chemis- 
 try; the botanist four lectures in general, eight in prac- 
 tical botany, and was to take his hearers four times into 
 the field.= On the whole, science seems little cultivated 
 at Oxford in 1700.^ 
 
 Cambridge seems to have had more of a reputation 
 for " New Philosophy " than Oxford. Here the ideas of 
 her great son Bacon were in a measure cherished, so that 
 Glanvill regretted not having gone there.'* It is a mark 
 
 'Wordsworth, op. cit., p. 176. 
 
 'Daniel, C. H., Barker, W. R., Oxford University, College His- 
 tories, Worcester, p. 160. 
 
 ^Encyclopedia of Education Article, Oxford. "It is probable that 
 no University began its revival so late as the University of Oxford. 
 That revival corresponds to the beginning of the 19th century." 
 
 ♦Fowler, Thomas, op. cit., p. 126. 
 
288 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 of progressiveness that the Cambridge Platonists opened 
 their doors widely to Cartesianism, while other univer- 
 sities, e. g. Glasgow, took the Jesuit attitude of abhor- 
 rence to such innovations.' But as late as 1662 Ray, the 
 zoologist, lost his position on account of objecting to 
 the form of the oath." The sudden rise of mathematics 
 and the professorship of Newton give to Cambridge 
 during the years 1660 to 1700 a significance in the 
 history of science, which is recognized more clearly to- 
 day than it was by contemporaneous students there. 
 
 We saw how little astronomy and mathematics were 
 cultivated in Cambridge in the first half of the century. 
 At last in 1663, the Lucasian professorship was endowed 
 with the condition that the holder might lecture on geom- 
 etry, arithmetic, astronomy, geography, optics, statics 
 or other branches of mathematics, and that the fund was 
 also to be used for the purchase of mathematical books or 
 instruments.^ Isaac Barrow (1630-1677) was the first 
 to hold this chair, and his lectures on mathematics and 
 optics constitute the first significant effort of Cambridge 
 in the realm of pure science. They failed to attract 
 considerable audiences, and Barrow in 1669 resigned in 
 favor of his pupil, Isaac Newton.'* While it is needless to 
 say what Newton's work in mathematics, optics and ce- 
 lestial mechanics stands for, it is important to emphasize 
 again two points. First, Newton = was exactly of the 
 same type as Boyle and Hooke, a tireless experimenter 
 
 'MuUinger, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 495. 
 
 'Carus, op. cit., p. 428. 
 
 " Trusts, Statutes and Directions affecting Professorships, Scholar- 
 ships and Prizes and other endowments of University of Cambridge, p. 
 30. 
 
 'Ball, W. W.,op.cit., p. 48. 
 
 ' Brewster, David, Life of Sir Isaac Newton, p. 265. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 289 
 
 without direct inspiration from his college, at first 
 equally interested in chemical and alchemistic experi- 
 ments, working at an apothecary shop, or in his garden 
 or bedroom arranged for laboratory purposes ; second, 
 no word of the revolutionary changes in optics con- 
 tained in his lectures reached the world of science from 
 the lecture room of the Lucasian Professor, until he, 
 upon Ward's advice, reported the matter to, and became 
 a member of, the London Royal Society. Indeed the 
 fact that in spite of Newton's efforts no society for ex- 
 perimentation could be formed in Cambridge during 
 those years, shows most conclusively the lack of en- 
 thusiasm for science there.' 
 
 The story of how the Newtonian philosophy" took 
 root in English Universities is interesting as illus- 
 trating university conservatism. By an odd accident, 
 just at the time when Newton's work was conceived 
 — which was to deal the death blow to Cartesian 
 physics — Descartes' system, after long resistance on the 
 part of the Aristotelian physicists, had come to be 
 adopted ; and, under a Cartesian garb, Newton's philos- 
 ophy was to enter Cambridge.^ In 1697 Dr. Samuel 
 Clarke translated Rohault's Physics, the standard text- 
 book of the Cartesian system, into Latin, and in the 
 notes the translator gave by way of comment, Newton's 
 views, which were a refutation of the Cartesian text. 
 The odd title of this composite book was Jacobus 
 Rohaultus Physica Latine reddita et annotata ex, Js. 
 
 'Newton, referring to these efforts, wrote: "That which chiefly 
 dasht the business was the want of persons willing to try experiments. 
 The one we chiefly rel'd on refusing to concern himself in that kind. 
 And I should be very ready to concur with any persons for promoting 
 such a designe, so far as I can do it." Weld, op. cit., i, p. 306. 
 
 ' Wolf, op. cit., p. 468. ' Ball, op. cit., p. 80. 
 
290 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 Newtonii Principiis. Through this strategem Newton's 
 ideas were forced upon the consideration of the in- 
 structors and tutors whose prejudice it was at once more 
 important and more difificult to overcome than that of 
 the professors.' Newton himself held the Lucasian 
 professorship until 1702. Then he was succeeded by 
 Professor Whiston, a convert to his system. But at the 
 same time, even until 171 8, Cartesian physics were up- 
 held by other professors. It is significant that the 
 first special chair for a branch of natural philosophy, 
 chemistry (which then comprised heat, electricity and 
 magnetism), was founded in 1702, outside the seven- 
 teenth century." Even afterward in the eighteenth 
 century, experimental science remained always subordi- 
 nate to mathematics in Cambridge and, as Ball puts it, 
 there was destined to follow upon the reign of logic, a 
 reign of mathematics, no less absolute and onesided.^ 
 During the last decades of the century, traces of in- 
 terest in science are to be found in most universities. 
 The universities of St. Andrews and Edinburgh have 
 the distinction of being the first places where Newton's 
 ideas, through David Gregory, became the object of 
 academic discussion.* The University of Glasgow in 
 1692 pointed to its need of apparatus and instruments, 
 and in 1693 obtained a telescope with prisms and tubes 
 from George Sinclair, professor of Mathematics.' Edin- 
 burgh in 169s established a special professorship of 
 
 'Yet Ball (pp. cit., p. 74) says ; " If we desired to find to whom the 
 spread of the study of Newton is due, we must look among proctors, 
 moderators, colleges, tutors who accepted his doctrine." 
 
 ^Encyclopedia of Education, Article, Cambridge. 
 
 'Ball, W. W., op. cit., p. 253. 
 
 * Brewster, op. cit., p. 265. 
 
 'Coutts, James, op. cit., p. 195. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 29 1 
 
 botany.' Thus it must be admitted that scientific inquiry 
 in 1700 was beginning to assume a different aspect in 
 the English colleges from that which it presented in 
 1600. 
 
 HOLLAND 
 
 The most promising conditions for university develop- 
 ment during the seventeenth century existed undoubt- 
 edly in Holland. I therefore greatly regret my inability 
 to obtain any account of their activities other than 
 sporadic hints in books dealing with other subjects. 
 
 The first favorable element in the situation was that 
 Dutch universities were for the most part city founda- 
 tions and under city regulations. ' Then the foundations 
 of all these universities fall close to, or within the seven- 
 teenth century, and hence they did not have the burden of 
 a long inheritance of scholasticism to contend with. If, 
 besides, we realize, that at this period the Dutch cities 
 were exceedingly wealthy; that in Amsterdam toleration, 
 freedom of speech, freedom of the press existed beyond 
 anything conceived of in other parts of Europe; that 
 there was the greatest appreciation of, and friendliness 
 to, scholarship, we can well understand why Dutch uni- 
 versities took a leading position among schools of learn- 
 ing. They were not so much Dutch as international 
 institutions. Leyden was the university of the Hugue- 
 nots and Puritans driven from their own countries, and 
 
 'Grant, Sir A. History of University of Edinburgh, p. 217. 
 
 'The University of Leyden was founded in 1575 by William of Orange 
 (Minerva, op. cit., p. 164); the University of Groningen by the govern- 
 ing body of the province in 1614. (Ibid., p. 163). The Athenaeum 
 lUustre, the University of Amsterdam, was founded by the city Magi- 
 strates in 1634 (iMd., p. 162), the University of Utrecht by the city 
 through the efforts of its mayor in 1634 {ibid., p. 165). 
 
292 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 was also much frequented by Germans.' . Similarly Utrecht 
 and Groningen had many German and EngHsh students.' 
 Turning to those matters which are of special interest 
 to us, we find, contrary to what would be expected, that 
 there was no liberty of religious belief at these universities, 
 and that at Leyden and Utrecht the Calvinistic doctrine 
 was prescribed for students and professors.' The most 
 progressive and most important faculties of these Dutch 
 universities were those of law and medicine. The faculty 
 of medicine at Leyden, under the guidance of the great 
 latrochemist, Francis Sylvius de la Boe (1614-1672), 
 showed that progress toward the cultivation of the sci- 
 entific and practical study of medicine which seems lack- 
 ing in other countries. He was a follower of Van 
 Helmont's ideas, but built up his chemical studies on the 
 much more scientific basis of a knowledge of anatomy 
 and physiology. Realizing thus the vast significance of 
 chemical research for medicine, he persuaded the Cu- 
 rators of the university to build for him a " laborator- 
 ium, as they call it." ^ Besides another fundamental 
 innovation was introduced. To the University of Ley- 
 den the credit is due of having made clinical teaching a 
 permanent institution, and of having through its students 
 transmitted the custom to other places.' At Leyden the 
 
 'Eulenburg (op. cit., p. 127), calculates that at Leyden an average 
 of five hundred German students studied yearly. Peacock, Edward F. 
 S. A, in an Index of English Speaking Students who have graduated 
 at Leyden University, collected the names of 4300 English students who 
 studied at Leyden up to 1835, but looking through the index I found that 
 they were mostly students of the seventeenth century. 
 
 'Groningen had up to i6go, 3548 Dutch and 2683 foreigners, of whom 
 2141 were Germans. (Minerva, op. cit., p. 164). 
 
 •Tholuck, op. cit., p. S. 
 
 'Foster, op. cit., p. 147. 
 
 'Puschman (pp. cit., pp. 411 sq.) gives the following account of the 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 293 
 
 greatest students of medicine of the century such as 
 Swammerdam, Willis and Steno' were educated; and it 
 is worthy of note that Guericke, Hevelius and Nehemiah 
 Grew Studied there, and that Huygens in his last will 
 bequeathed his manuscripts to that university. 
 
 establishment of clinical teaching. "The Professors Otto Van Heurne 
 and E. Schrevelius inaugurated this system about the year 1630 in the 
 infirmary at Leyden. The method adopted was for the students first of 
 all to examine the patient on his complaint, then for each one to state 
 his view upon the nature, causes, symptoms, prognosis and treatment 
 of the disease, and last of all for the Professor to confirm the correct 
 opinion, to confute erroneous ones, and to add any explanation required. 
 But this procedure did not please the students, for they ran the risk of 
 of having their ignorance exposed by questions which they could not 
 answer, and O. V. Heurne found himself obliged reluctantly to give it 
 up and in its place to undertake the examination of the patients him- 
 self, and to follow this up closely with directions for treatment. The 
 bodies of the patients who died in the hospital were opened in order to 
 arrive at certainty as to the cause and seat of their diseases. An 
 apothecary's shop was also attached to this hospital where the students 
 could see and learn how to prepare medicines. 
 
 In 1648 Albert Kyper, to whom we owe this account, coming from 
 Konigsberg in Prussia, took over the direction of the clinic at Leyden. 
 After a few years he was succeeded by F. De Le Boe (Sylvius) who 
 has been thus described, when engaged in clinical instruction, by his 
 colleague Lucas Schacht ; ' when he came with his pupils to the 
 patient and began to teach, he appeared completely in the dark as to 
 the causes or the nature of the affection the patient was suffering from, 
 and at first expressed no opinion upon the case ; he then began by 
 questions put to different members of his audience to fish out (ex- 
 piscabatur) everything, and finally united the facts discovered in this 
 manner into a complete picture of the disease, in such a way that the 
 students received the impression that they had themselves made the 
 diagnosis and not learnt it from him.' Under his direction the Leyden 
 clinic acquired such a reputation that ' students and doctores came 
 thither,' as Schacht says, 'from Hungary, Russia, Poland, Germany, 
 Denmark and Sweden, from Switzerland, Italy, France and England, 
 in fact from every country in Europe '...." 
 
 ' Foster, op. cit., p. 174. Steno extols the great enthusiasm of Syl- 
 vius who impressed upon his students how little he knew, and how 
 much remained to be discovered. 
 
294 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 The progressive spirit of the Dutch universities as a 
 whole is evinced by their attitude toward the Cartesian 
 teaching. At Utrecht it was immediately taught by 
 Renery, a pupil of Descartes, and by Henry Regius (Van 
 Roy), professor of theoretical medicine. But even here it 
 had to fight some battles with the orthodox theological 
 party, voicing its sentiments through Voetius, the 
 Rector of the university, no less an opponent of Harvey's 
 theory of circulation of blood than of Descartes.' At 
 Leyden and Groningen it easily overthrew Aristotelian 
 physics. 
 
 In the territory which constitutes Belgium today only 
 one university flourished, namely Louvain. About this, I 
 unfortunately found out only that it was a city foundation 
 of great prominence throughout the period, with a 
 famous medical school, thronged by foreign students. To 
 what extent, if any, modern methods were introduced in 
 the seventeenth century, I have not been able to ascertain. 
 
 Having thus touched upon some features of university 
 development during the seventeenth century in the five 
 leading countries of Europe, we are prepared to turn 
 once more to the conditions of scientific progress enum- 
 erated at the opening of this chapter, and ask ourselves 
 how far the universities had begun to fulfill these con- 
 ditions in the seventeenth century. 
 
 I. The statement that science can thrive only in 
 universities where a secular spirit prevails is borne out 
 by the fact that in the universities of North Italy and 
 Holland, and in Altdorf — all controlled by municipalities 
 — active centres of scientific progress were found ; while 
 in England, in France and in most German universities, 
 
 ' Mullinger, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 430. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 295 
 
 where in 1700 the ecclesiastical element was still pre- 
 eminent, no such promising condition existed. 
 
 2. No change of methods of instruction had been in- 
 troduced by 1700, but the mediaeval disputations were 
 perpetuated, even in University of Halle, founded at the 
 end of the century.' 
 
 3. The emphasis on logic, metaphysics and ancient 
 languages was hardly lessened. 
 
 4. Sporadic instances occurred of the establishment of 
 the various sciences as independent disciplines ; in Eng- 
 land professorships of astronomy, botany, experimental 
 physics, in Germany a chair of chemistry and several of 
 physics" and of botany were established — insignificant 
 beginnings, but implying a tendency towards special- 
 ization. 
 
 5. In two instances, Leyden and Altdorf, universi- 
 ties had established laboratories from their own funds. 
 Bologna obtained one through bequest. Laboratory 
 work was occasionally carried on informally at the 
 homes of professors ; botanical gardens were generally 
 established. 
 
 6. The new truths were very slowly incorporated into 
 text-books, as was seen in the case of the Newtonian 
 philosophy.3 
 
 7. The reform of the study of medicine through the 
 introduction of methods of dissection commenced at the 
 
 ' Eulenburg, op. cit., p. 225. 
 
 ' Rosenberger, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 77: "Even if brilliant physicists 
 used occasionally the method of experiment, this had not brought it to 
 general recognition and understanding. The chairs of physics in the 
 universities were still occupied by peripatetic philosophers." 
 
 'Kopp {op. cit., ii, p. 182) says that no text book of the time ac- 
 cepted Boyle's ideas but all clung to Paracelsus' views. Gerland- 
 Traumiiller (.op. cit., ii, pp. 201 sqq.) state that textbooks on experi- 
 mental physics were creations of the eighteenth century. 
 
296 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 end of the sixteenth century, was continued through- 
 out the seventeenth and brought to relatively high per- 
 fection at Padua, Leyden and London. Anatomical 
 theaters were established at many universities. Micro- 
 scopic study was pursued, privately only, by a few pro- 
 fessors. Clinical teaching existed only in Leyden. A 
 polyclinic was established in connection with the Uni- 
 versity of Paris. 
 
 8. The faculties of theology and law retained their 
 former position of preeminence. 
 
 9. Latin was still the official university language in all 
 countries.' The vernacular was adopted at only one 
 German university, Halle. 
 
 ID. There is no evidence of university-interest in 
 technical studies. 
 
 11. The degree of freedom of thought in matters of 
 philosophic and scientific inquiry can be tested by the 
 attitude taken by the universities towards the Copernican 
 and Cartesian ideas. Neither was permitted to be taught 
 at any Catholic institution during the seventeenth cen- 
 tury. Yet I find that even at the Protestant university 
 of Tubingen, Michael Mastlin was afraid to teach the 
 Copernican doctrine." It would appear that not only at 
 Catholic universities were certain beliefs officially banned, 
 but that the teachings of the Bible established in Pro- 
 testant institutions the furthest limit to which inquiry 
 might be carried. 
 
 Freedom of conscience seems not to have existed 
 except in the North ItaHan institutions. 
 
 12. Freedom of the press existed in 1700 in Holland 
 
 • Paulsen however suggests that even if the teaching of Latin was the 
 same in 1700 as in i6oo, the belief in its indispensability had ceased. 
 ' Reicke, Etnil, Der Gelehrte in Deutscher Vergangenheit, p. 109. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES 297 
 
 and in England. In France the law of 1626 prescribing 
 the death penalty to the author of a book that was not 
 submitted to the censor, was still in force in 1700; in 
 Germany there was an imperial censorship commission; 
 in Catholic countries the Papal Congregation of the 
 Index reinforced the activity of the civil censors. 
 
 It was not until the early years of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury that the University of Halle adopted the principle 
 of " libertas philosophandi," ' and that the regulations in 
 Kiel declared (1707) "that no faculty be henceforth 
 bound to certain principles and opinions as far as they 
 depend on human authority, but that every teacher 
 give a free and arbitrary examination of all truths."' 
 Not until 1720 did the Faculty of Arts of Paris place 
 Descartes' MHhode beside the Organon and the Meta- 
 physics of Aristotle. 
 
 ' Paulsen, Friedrich, Geschichte des Gelehrten Unterrichts, vol. i, p. 
 372- 
 'Eulenburg, op. cit., p. 140. 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 The preceding review of university instruction in the 
 seventeenth century leads to the conclusion that, with 
 the exception of the medical faculties,, universities con- 
 tributed little to the advancement of sciefnce. 
 
 This is further substantiated by the fact that many of 
 the greatest scientists and thinkers were without any 
 affiliation with universities; in England, Bacon and Grew, 
 Boyle, Flamsteed, Willoughby ; in Holland, Huygens, 
 Leuwenhoek, Swammerdam, Van Helmont; in Germany, 
 Hevelius, Leibnitz, earlier Kepler, Guericke ; in France, 
 Descartes, Pascal, Mariotte, Lemery. Many others 
 while not entirely disassociated from the universities, were 
 affiliated with them only during a brief and insignificant 
 period of their life;' others again as Robert Hooke and 
 Gassendi, held professorships at institutions such as the 
 " Gresham College " or the " College de France," which 
 cannot be counted among regular universities. 
 
 It is true that several of the greatest scientists oc- 
 cupied professorial chairs; but even in those instances it 
 often can be shown that their efficiency and prominence 
 were due to forces foreign to the universities.' 
 
 Nor was this separation of the majority of scientists from 
 the university atmosphere accidental. It grew in most 
 
 ' See Papin. 
 
 'As was shown above, Newton had lectured to Cambridge students 
 for three years on his novel theory of colors, and no mention of it had 
 reached a body as eager for such information as the Royal Society. 
 Halley occupied his professorship after he was well established in fame 
 through a career disassociated from the universities. 
 2g8 
 
CONCLUSION 299 
 
 cases from a conviction that the type of work done there 
 — indeed, the entire educational fabric— was valueless, or 
 at least foreign to their aims. This conviction had arisen 
 before the seventeenth century in the minds of Roger 
 Bacon, Cardan, Campanella, Telesio, Montaigne, es- 
 pecially in Paracelsus,' and Peter Ramus; ^ but in the 
 seventeenth century it became much more general and 
 showed itself both in the open criticisms of many of the 
 leading thinkers ^ and in the numerous schemes and pro- 
 jects of reform which fill the records of the educational 
 histories of Germany and England of this period. 
 
 'For an excellent account of Paracelsus' attitude see Meyer, E., op. 
 cit., vol. iv, pp. 425 sqq. 
 
 ^Huber, V. A., English Universities, vol. ii, p. 292. 
 ^In the previous pages the criticisms of Bacon, Descartes, Leibnitz, 
 Jungius, Hobbes, and Thomasius were noticed. 
 
 Contrast with the prevailing spirit of criticism of the universities the 
 expression of admiration and loyalty by Sprat, the historian of the 
 Royal Society {op. cit., p. 328): "I confess there haven't been want- 
 ing some forward assertors of the new philosophy, who haven't used 
 moderation towards them (universities) but have concluded that noth- 
 ing can be well done in the new discoveries unless all ancient arts be 
 first rejected and their nurseries abolished — ' ' but, "the rashness of these 
 men's proceedings has prejudiced rather than advanced what they make 
 the show to promote — " ..." It is but just that we should have this 
 tenderness for the interest of these magnificent seats of humane knowl- 
 edge andtiivine, to which the natural philosophy of our nation cannot 
 be injurious without horrible ingratitude, seeing in them it has been 
 principally cherished and revised. It is true that such experimental 
 studies are largely dispersed at this time. But they first came forth 
 thence as colonies of old did from Rome." 
 
 Yet Sprat confesses {op. cit., p. 68) " Our seats of knowledge are not 
 laboratories as they ought to be. but only schools," and {ibid., p. 329 
 sq.) "Nothing more suppresses the genius of learners than formality 
 and confinement of precepts by which they are, instructed. ... I ven- 
 ture to propose whether it were not as profitable to apply the eyes and 
 hands of children to see and touch all the several sensible things as to 
 oblige them to learn and remember the doctrines of general arts— 
 whether mechanical education would not excel the methodical." . . . 
 "It is the memory which has most vigor in children and judgment in 
 
300 
 
 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 All criticisms against the universities were directed 
 against the conservatism of the system. Tt is not our 
 province here to examine how far such conservatism is 
 inevitable and inherent in all established institutions. Only 
 a few additional facts will be adduced to show that this has 
 been a salient characteristic of the great educational 
 bodies. No change was made from 1570-1858 in, the 
 statutes of Oxford; ' no essential change from 1558-1830 
 in the organization of the University of Leipzig," and no 
 change from 1 360-1 783 in the laws of the theological 
 faculty of Bologna.^ Indeed the history of universities 
 in the eighteenth century continues to be a record of 
 conservatism. In Germany, for example, while on the 
 one hand, the University of Gottingen was founded 
 in 1733 where science attained an ideal home, on the 
 other hand in 1740' the University of Innsbruck refused 
 the establishment of a professorship in botany and chem- 
 istry and had the latter subject studied in apothecary 
 shops;* and in Erlangen the professor of chemistry had 
 to give all laboratory instructions in his own house and 
 with his own apparatus, from 1754 to 1769.' 
 
 It thus would seem from the slight progress of the uni- 
 yersities along lines of experimental science, from the 
 fact that 'the greatest scientists of the- 'age \^^pe.jiot 
 affiliated with them, from the many criticisms leveled 
 against them and from actual evidences of their conserv- 
 atism, extending even into the eighteenth century, that 
 ^the universities in the seventeenth century did not lend 
 
 men . . . (hence) we take a preposterous course in education by teach- 
 ing geiteral rules bdqre particular things." Thus it would seem that 
 Spra:f 's praise of the miversiti^ was ra|fcer. that of lo}^lty than ^f ap- 
 pi^jval. ^y • \"'.ll'' ^ 
 
 'Minerva, op. cii., vol. i, p. 218. ^Ibid., vol. i, p. 30. 
 
 'Mazzetti Serafino, op. cit., p. 46. *Puschmann, op. cit., p. 30. 
 
 'Giinther, S., op. cit., p. 6. 
 
CONCLUSION 30 1 
 
 to science that encouragement which it needed in order 
 to take root in them. 
 
 Let us turn from the university situation to that 
 of the Scientific Societies. It is superfluous to say that 
 they made every effort to foster the cause of experimental 
 science. ■ This was the key note, the charter, of their 
 existence, the motive underlying their every activity. 
 Yet it may not be amiss to emphasize again the most 
 characteristic directions of their efforts. These may 
 be epitomized as follows : The societies concentrated 
 groups of scientists at one place, performed experiments 
 and investigations impossible to individual effort, en- 
 couraged individual scientists and gave them both op- 
 portunity and leisure, often through financial support, "for 
 scientific work. They became centres of scientific in- 
 formation, " iora sapientiae" published and translated 
 scientific books, promulgated periodically scientific dis- 
 coveries and thus coordinated the scientific efforts of the 
 various progressive European countries. They con- 
 cerned themselves about matters of homely interest such 
 as trade, commerce, tools and machinery, and tried to 
 improve everyday life by the light of science. They con- 
 tributed to the general enlightment by dispelling popular 
 errors, and at times endeavored to reach the public by 
 means of lectures. But first and foremost they developed 
 the scientific laboratory, created the national observatory, 
 devised, perfected and standardized instruments, origi- 
 nated and insisted on exact methods of experimentation 
 and thus established permanently the laboratory method 
 as the only true means of scientific study.' 
 
 'The great significance of scientific societies is by no means a con- 
 sideration a posteriori but was felt by many scientists and thinkers dur- 
 ing the seventeenth century. Gregory wrote to Collins [Rigaud, op. 
 cit, i, p. 158] " They \i. e., the Royal Society] will cause great changes 
 throughout all the body of natural philosophy," and Weld (op. cit., i, 
 
302 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 The conclusion is thus inevitable, that the organized 
 support which Science needed in order to penetrate into 
 the thought and lives of people was not obtained from 
 universities, but was derived from those forms of corpo- 
 rate activity which it had created for itself, the Scientific 
 Societies. 
 
 Our interpretation of the relative contributions of uni- 
 versities and societies to the newly-born sciences has 
 been generally adopted by students of both, and it may 
 be of interest in conclusion to quote some of their views. 
 Harnack in his study of the Berlin Academy says : 
 
 The European universities were born at the high tide of the 
 Middle Ages, and their institutions corresponded to the medi- 
 eval attitude of transmitting the sum of knowledge in fixed 
 forms. The Academies of Europe belong to the epoch which 
 begins in the middle of the seventeenth century, and their 
 institutions are an expression of the new spirit which was 
 thenceforth to attain its power in the realm of thought and 
 life.' 
 
 Lexis, the historian of the German universities, says: 
 
 p. 422) relates that " Sir Isaac Newton was pleased to say he wished 
 there were a Philosophical Society in every town where there was com- 
 pany to support them." Dr. E. Bernard wrote to Collins (Rigaud, op. 
 cit., i, p. iS&sq. April 3, 1671) referring to Oxford : " Books and ex- 
 periments do well together, but separately they betray imperfection. 
 . . . The happy Royal Society adjusts both together, and I doubt not 
 but in a short while will approve itself so great a friend and near ally to 
 the universities that by the munificence of some of the members of 
 noble fellowship there may be occasion given of frequent experiment in 
 both famous universities and consequently of lasting commerce." 
 
 Boyle composed A Treatise written to recommend the whole Design 
 of the Society and honored the Society by leaving them in his will a 
 collection . . . " as a testimony of my great respect for the illustrious 
 Society, . . . wishing them ... a happy success in their laudable at- 
 tempts to discover the true nature of the works of God." [Birch, Life 
 of Robert Boyle, p. clx.] 
 
 'Harnack, Adolph, op. cit., vol. i, p. 5. 
 
CONCLUSION 303 
 
 The new philosophy and natural science was not born within 
 the walls of the universities. The result of this fact was that 
 the universities lagged behind the spirit of the time and gradu- 
 ally fell into disrepute.' . . . While at the universities the old 
 scholastic physics and cosmology was lectured upon in close 
 adherence to the Aristotelian text, there arose outside and 
 scorned by them, modern mathematical and scientific learning, 
 which eventually led to a complete transformation of our con- 
 ception of the universe. The universities remained unaffected 
 . . . except that they felt occasionally called upon to rise in 
 defense against the invaders. Hence modem philosophy grew 
 into a power hostile to the universities, which seemed superan- 
 nuated in view of the newer educational ideals.' 
 
 Tannery, in his review of the progress of sciences at 
 this period, says : 
 
 The universities . . . were incapable of transforming them- 
 selves to the needs of the new times. . . . Hence the great 
 necessity for societies capable of centralizing the efforts of sci- 
 entific workers and of supplying funds for expensive experi- 
 ments and for the expenses of scientific publications.' 
 
 Eulenberg, in his study of the German universities, 
 writes : 
 
 The comparatively slight regard shown for the new studies by 
 the universities leads to a higher estimation of academies. 
 Great works and important discussions are to be found far 
 oftener in the transactions of academicians than at the lectures 
 of universities.* 
 
 To sum up: These societies were the " Kulturtrager " 
 of the second half of the seventeenth century much as 
 the universities had been before the scientific revolution. 
 
 ' Lexis, W., Uie Universitaten in Deutschen Reich, p. 4. 
 ^Ibid., p. 16. 'Tannery in Histoire de France, vol. vi, p. 394. 
 
 *Eulenburg, op. cit., p. 137. 
 
304 TH^ ROLE OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 
 
 They were the concentrated expression of the new spirit 
 which was to gain the supremacy in the realm of thought 
 and life. They typify this age drunk with the fullness of 
 new knowledge, busy with the uprooting of superan- 
 nuated superstitions, breaking loose from traditions of 
 the past, embracing most extravagant hopes for the 
 future. In their midst the spirit of minute scientific in- 
 quiry is developed; here the charlatanry and curiosity of 
 the alchemist and magician is transformed into methodical 
 investigation ; here the critical faculty is developed so 
 that the disclosure of an error is as important as the 
 discovery of a new truth; here the minute fact is put as 
 high — nay, higher — than generalization; here the indi- 
 vidual scientist learned to be contented and proud to 
 have added an infinitesimal part to the sum of knowledge, 
 here, in short, here the modern scientist was evolved. 
 
 The universities to-day have little more in common with 
 those of the seventeenth century than the name, their 
 general organization, and a few formalities, such as con- 
 ferring degrees. The revolution in the universities 
 which caused them to assimilate the changes sketched 
 above, making of the university professor a modern scien- 
 tist, has been the task of the two centuries which have 
 elapsed since the seventeenth and in a most real sense is 
 still the task of our own time. This revolution has made 
 and is making universities homes of free thought, of 
 scientific research and instruction, places where matters 
 most intimately connected with every-day life are fostered. 
 
 It was the unmistakable and magnificent achievement 
 of the Scientific Societies of the seventeenth century not 
 only to put modern science on a solid foundation but in 
 good time to revolutionize the ideals and methods of the 
 universities and render them the friends and promoters 
 of experimental science instead of the stubborn foes they 
 had so long been. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 • Bacon's House of Salomon 
 
 The End of our Foundation is the knowledgfe of Causes, 
 and secret motions of things ; and the enlarging of the bounds 
 of Human Empire, to the effecting of all things possible. 
 
 The Preparations and Instruments are these. We have 
 large and deep caves of several depths: the deepest are sunk six 
 hundred fathom; and some of them are digged and made under 
 great hills and mountains: so that if you reckon together the 
 depth of the hill and the depth of the cave, they are (some of 
 them) about three miles deep. For we.find that the depth of 
 a hill, and the depth of a cave from the flat, is the same thing; 
 both remote alike from the sun and heaven's beams, and from 
 the open air. These caves we call the Lower Region. And we 
 use them for all coagulations, indurations, refrigerations, and 
 conservations of bodies. We use them likewise for the imita- 
 tion of natural mines; and the producing also of new artificial 
 metals, by compositions and materials which we use and lay 
 there for many years. We use them also sometimes, (which 
 may seem strange,) for curing of some diseases, and for pro- 
 longation of life in some hermits that choose to live there, 
 well accommodated of all thihgs necessary; and indeed live 
 very long; by whom also we learn many things. 
 
 We have burials in several earths, where we put divers 
 cements, as the Chineses do their porcellain. But we have them 
 in greater variety, and some of them more fine. We have 
 also great variety of composts, and soils, for the making of 
 the earth fruitful. 
 
 We have high towers; the highest about half a mile in 
 height; and some of them likewise set upon high mountains; so 
 
 30s 
 
3o6 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 that the vantage of the hill with the tower is in the highest of 
 them three miles at least. And these places we call the Upper 
 Region: accounting the air between the high places and the 
 low, as a Middle Region. We use these towers, according to 
 their several heights and situations, for insolation, refrigera- 
 tion, conservation; and for the view of divers meteors; as 
 winds, rain, snow, hail, and some of the fiery meteors also. 
 And upon them, in some places, are dwellings of hermits, 
 whom we visit sometimes, and instruct what to observe. 
 
 We have great lakes both salt and fresh, whereof we have 
 use for the fish and fowl. We use them also for burials of 
 some natural bodies: for we find a difference in things buried 
 in earth or in air below the earth, and things buried in water. 
 We have also pools, of which some do strain fresh water out 
 of salt; and others by art do turn fresh water into salt. We 
 have also some rocks in the midst of the sea, and some bays 
 upon the shore for some works wherein is required the air 
 and vapour of the sea. We have likewise violent streams and 
 cataracts, which serve us for many motions: and likewise 
 engines for multiplying and enforcing of winds, to set also on 
 going divers motions. 
 
 We have also a number of artificial wells and fountains, 
 made in imitation of the natural sources and baths ; as tincted 
 upon vitriol, sulphur, steel, lead, brass, nitre, and other min- 
 erals. And again we have little wells for infusions of many 
 things, where the waters take the virtue quicker and better 
 than in vessels or basons. And amongst them we have a 
 water which we call Water of Paradise, being, by that we do 
 to it, made very sovereign for health, and prolongation of 
 life. 
 
 We have also great and spacious houses, where we imitate 
 and demonstrate meteors ; as snow, hail, rain, some artificial 
 rains of bodies and not of water, thunders, lightnings ; also 
 generations of bodies in air ; as frogs, flies, and divers others. 
 
 We have also certain chambers, which we call Chambers of 
 Health, where we qualify the air as we think good and proper 
 for the cure of divers diseases, and preservation of health. 
 
APPENDIX 307 
 
 We have also fair and large baths, of several mixtures, for 
 the cure of diseases, and the restoring- of man's body from 
 arefaction ; and others for the confirming of it in strength of 
 sinews, vital parts, and the very juice and substance of the 
 body. 
 
 We have also large and various orchards and gardens, 
 wherein we do not so much respect beauty, as variety of 
 ground and soil, proper for divers trees and herbs ; and some 
 very spacious, where trees and berries are set whereof we 
 make divers kinds of drinks, besides the vineyards. In these 
 we practise likewise all conclusions of grafting and inoculating, 
 as well of wild-trees as fruit-trees, which produceth many 
 effects. And we make (by art) in the same orchards and 
 gardens, trees and flowers to come earlier or later than their 
 seasons ; and to come up and bear more speedily than by 
 their natural course they do. We make them also by art 
 greater much than their nature ; and their fruit greater and 
 sweeter and of differing taste, smell, colour, and figure, from 
 their nature. And many of them we so order, as they become 
 of medicinal use. 
 
 We have also means to make divers plants rise by mixtures 
 of earths without seeds ; and likewise to make divers new 
 plants, differing from the vulgar ; and to make one tree or 
 plant turn into another. 
 
 We have also parks and inclosures of all sorts of beasts and 
 birds, which we use not only for view or rareness, but like- 
 wise for dissections and trials ; that thereby we may take 
 light what may be wrought upon the body of man. Wherein 
 we find many strange effects; as continuing life in them, 
 though divers parts, which you account vital, be perished and 
 taken forth ; resuscitating of some that seem dead in appear- 
 ance ; and the like. We try also all poisons and other medi- 
 cines upon them, as well of chirurgery as physic. By art 
 likewise, we make them greater or taller than their kind is ; 
 and contrariwise dwarf them, and stay their growth: we 
 make them moie fruitful and bearing than their kind is ; and 
 contrariwise barren and not generative. Also we make them 
 
3o8 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 differ in colour, shape, activity, many ways. We find means 
 to make commixtures and copulations of different kinds ; 
 which have produced many new kinds, and them not barren, 
 as the g^eneral opinion is. We make a number of kind, of 
 serpents, worms, flies, fishes, of putrefaction ; whereof some 
 are advanced (in effect) to be perfect creatures, like beasts or 
 birds ; and have sexes, and do propagate. Neither do we 
 this by chance, but we know beforehand of what matter and 
 commixture what kind of those creatures will arise. 
 
 We have also particular pools, where we make trials upon 
 fishes, as we have said before of beasts and birds. 
 
 We have also places for breed and generation of those kinds 
 of worms and flies which are of special use ; such as are with 
 you your silk-worms and bees. 
 
 I will not hold you long with recounting of our brew- 
 houses, bake-houses, and kitchens, where are made divers 
 drinks, breads, and meats, rare and of special effects. Wines 
 we have of grapes ; and drinks of other juice of fruits, of 
 grains, and of roots : and of mixtures with honey, sugar, 
 manna, and fruits dried and decocted. Also of the tears or 
 woundings of trees, and of the pulp of canes. And these 
 drinks are of several ages, some to the age or last of forty 
 years. We have drinks also brewed with several herbs, and 
 roots, and spices ; yea with several fleshes, and white meats ; 
 whereof some of the drinks are such, as they are in effect 
 meat and drink both : so that divers, especially in age, do 
 desire to live with them, with little or no meat or bread. 
 And above all, we strive to have drinks of extreme thin parts, 
 to insinuate into the body, and yet without all biting, sharp- 
 ness, or fretting; insomuch as some of them put upon the 
 back of your hand will, with a little stay, pass through to the 
 palm, and yet taste mild to the mouth. We have also waters 
 which we ripen in that fashion, as they become nourishing ; 
 so that they are indeed excellent drink ; and many will use 
 no other. Breads we have of several grains, roots, and 
 kernels ; yea and some of flesh and fish dried ; with divers 
 kinds of leavenings and seasonings : so that some do ex- 
 
APPENDIX ,09 
 
 tremely move appetites ; some do nourish so, as divers do live 
 of them, without any other meat ; who live very long. So 
 for meats, we have some of them so beaten and made tender 
 and mortified, yet without all corrupting, as a weak heat of 
 the stomach will turn them into good chylus, as well as a 
 strong heat would meat otherwise prepared. We have some 
 meats also and breads and drinks, which taken by men enable 
 them to fast long after ; and some other, that used make the 
 very flesh of men's bodies sensibly more hard and tough, and 
 their strength far greater than otherwise it would be. 
 
 We have dispensatories, or shops of medicines. Wherein 
 you may easily think, if we have such variety of plants and 
 living creatures more than you have in Europe, (for we know 
 what you have,) the simples, drugs, and ingredients of medi- 
 cines, must likewise be in so much the greater variety. We 
 have them likewise of divers ages, and long fermentations. 
 And for their preparations, we have not only all manner of 
 exquisite distillations and separations, and especially by gentle 
 heats and percolations through divers strainers, yea and sub- 
 stances ; but also exact forms of composition, whereby they 
 incorporate almost, as they were natural simples. 
 
 We have also divers mechanical arts, which you have not; 
 and stuffs made by them; as papers, linen, silks, tissues; dainty 
 works of feathers of wonderful lustre ; excellent dyes, and 
 many others; and shops likewise, as well for such as are not 
 brought into vulgar use amongst us as for those that are. 
 For you must know that of the things before recited, many of 
 them are grown into use throughout the kingdom; but yet if 
 they did flow from our invention, we have of them also for 
 patterns and principals. 
 
 We have also furnaces of great diversities, and that keep 
 great diversity of heats; fierce and quick, strong and constant; 
 soft and mild; blown, quiet; dry, moist; and the like. But 
 above all, we have heats in imitation of the sun's and heavenly 
 bodies' heats, that pass divers inequalities and (as it were) orbs, 
 progresses, and returns, whereby we produce admirable effects. 
 Besides, we have heats of dungs, and of bellies and maws of 
 
3IO APPENDIX 
 
 living creatures, and of their bloods and bodies; and of hays 
 and herbs laid up moist; of lime unquenched; and such like. 
 Instruments also which generate heat only by motion. And 
 farther, places for strong insolations; and again, places under 
 the earth, which by nature or art yield heat. These divers 
 heats we use, as the nature of the operation which we intend 
 requireth. 
 
 We have also perspective-houses, where we make demon- 
 strations of all lights and radiations; and of all colors; and 
 out of things uncolored and transparent, we can represent 
 unto you all several colours; not in rain-bows, as it is in gems 
 and prisms, but of themselves single. We represent also all 
 multiplications of light, which we carry to great distance, and 
 make so sharp as to discern small points and lines; also all 
 colorations of light: all delusions and deceits of the sight, in 
 figures, magnitudes, motions, colours: all demonstrations of 
 shadows. We find also divers means, yet unknown to you, 
 of producing of light originally from divers bodies. We pro- 
 cure means of seeing objects afar ofif; as in the heaven and re- 
 mote places; and represent things near as afar off, and things 
 afar ofif as near; making feigned distances. We have also 
 helps for the sight, far above spectacles and glasses in use. We 
 have also glasses and means to see small and minute bodies 
 perfectly and distinctly; as the shapes and colours of small 
 flies and worms, grains and flaws in gems, which cannot 
 otherwise be seen; observations in urine and blood, not other- 
 wise to be seen. We make artificial rainbows, halos, and 
 circles about light. We represent also all manner of reflex- 
 ions, refractions, and [multiplications of visual beams of 
 objects. 
 
 We have also precious stones of all kinds, many of them of 
 great beauty, and to you unknown; crystals likewise; and 
 glasses of divers kinds; and amongst them some of metals 
 vitrificated, and other materials beside those of which you 
 make glass. Also a number of fossils, and imperfect minerals, 
 which you have not. Likewise loadstones of prodigious 
 virtue; and other rare stones, both natural and artificial. 
 
APPENDIX 311 
 
 We have also sound-houses, where we practise and demon- 
 strate all sounds, and their generation. We have harmonies 
 which you have not, of quarter-sounds, and lesser slides of 
 sounds. Divers instruments of music likewise to you un- 
 known, some sweeter than any you have; together with bells 
 and rings that are dainty and sweet. We represent small 
 sounds as great and deep; likewise great sounds extenuate 
 and sharp; we make divers tremblings and warblings of 
 sounds, which in their original are entire. We represent 
 and imitate all articulate sounds and letters, and the voices 
 and notes of beasts and birds. We have certain helps which 
 set to the ear do further the hearing greatly. We have also 
 divers strange and artificial echoes, reflecting the voice many 
 times, and as it were tossing it: and some that give back the 
 voice louder than it came; some shriller, and some deeper; 
 yea, some rendering the voice differing in the letters or articu- 
 late sound from that they receive. We have also means to 
 convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and 
 distances. 
 
 We have also perfume-houses; wherewith we join also 
 practices of taste. We multiphy smells, which may seem 
 strange. We imitate smells, making all smells to breathe out 
 of other mixtures than those that give them. We make 
 divers imitations of taste likewise, so that they will deceive any 
 man's taste. And in this house we contain also a confiture- 
 house; where we make all sweet-meats, dry and moist, and 
 divers pleasant wines, milks, broths, and sallets, far in greater 
 variety than you have. 
 
 We have also engine-houses, where are prepared engines 
 and instruments for all sorts of motions. There we imitate 
 and practise to make swifter motions than any you have, 
 either out of your muskets or any engine that you have ; and 
 to make them and multiply them more easily, and with small 
 force, by wheels and other means : and to make them stronger, 
 and more violent then yours are; exceeding your greatest 
 cannons and basilisks. We represent also ordnance and in- 
 struments of war, and engines of all kinds : and likewise new 
 
212 APPENDIX 
 
 mixtures and compositions of gun-powder, wildfires burning- 
 in water, and unquenchable. Also fire-works of all variety 
 both for pleasure and use. We imitate also flights of birds ; 
 we have some degrees of flying in the air ; we have ships and 
 boats for going under water, and brooking of seas; also 
 swimming-girdles and supporters. We have divers curious 
 clocks, and other Hke motions of return, and some perpetual 
 motions. We imitate also motions of living creatures, by 
 images of men, beasts, birds, fishes, and serpents. We have 
 also a great number of other various motions, strange for 
 equality, fineness, and subtilty. 
 
 We have also a mathematical-house, where are represented 
 all instruments, as well of geometry as astronomy, exquisitely 
 made. 
 
 We have also houses of deceits of the senses ; where we 
 represent all manner of feats of juggling, false apparitions, 
 impostures, and illusions; and their fallacies. And surely 
 you will easily believe that we that have so many things truly 
 natural which induce admiration, could in a world of partic- 
 ulars deceive the senses, if we would disguise those things and 
 labour to make them seem more miraculous. But we do hate 
 all impostures and lies ; insomuch as we have severely forbid- 
 den it to all our fellows, under pain of ignominy and fines, 
 that they do not shew any natural work or thing, adorned 
 or swelling; but only pure as it is, and without all afifectation 
 of strangeness. 
 
 These are (my son) the riches of Salomon's House. 
 
 For the several employments and offices of our fellows; we 
 have twelve that sail into foreign countries, under the names 
 of other nations, (for our own we canceal;) who bring us the 
 books, and abstracts, and patterns of experiments of all other 
 parts. These we call Merchants of Light. 
 
 We have three that collect the experiments which are in all 
 books. These we call Depredators. 
 
 We have three that collect the experiments of all mechan- 
 ical arts; and also of liberal sciences; and also of practices 
 which are not brought into arts. These we call Mystery-men. 
 
APPENDIX 312 
 
 We have three that try new experiments, such as themselves 
 think good. These we call Pioners or Miners. 
 
 We have three that draw the experiments of the former four 
 into titles and tables, to give the better light for the drawing 
 of observations and axioms out of them. These we call 
 Compilers. 
 
 We have three that bend themselves, looking into the ex- 
 periments of their fellows, and cast about how to draw out of 
 them things of use and practice for man's life, and knowledge 
 as well for works as for plain demonstration of causes, means 
 of natural divinations, and the easy and clear discovery of the 
 virtues and parts of bodies. These we call Dowry-men or 
 Benefactors. 
 
 Then after divers meetings and consults of our whole num- 
 ber, to consider of the former labours and collections, we have 
 three that take care, out of them, to direct new experiments, 
 of a higher light, more penetrating into nature than the 
 former. These we call Lamps. 
 
 We have three others that do execute the experiments so 
 directed, and report them. These we call Inoculators. 
 
 Lastly, we have three that raise the former discoveries by 
 experiments into greater observations, axioms, and aphor- 
 isms. These we call Interpreters of Nature. 
 
 We have also, as you must think, novices and apprentices, 
 that the succession of the former employed men do not fail; 
 besides a great number of servants and attendants, men and 
 women. And this we do also: we have consultations, which 
 of the inventions and experiments which we have discovered 
 shall be published, and which not: and take all an oath of 
 secrecy, for the concealing of those which we think fit to keep 
 secret: though some of those we do reveal sometimes to the 
 state, and some not. 
 
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VITA 
 
 Martha Ornstein was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1879, 
 and received her High School instruction in the Vienna 
 Madchen- Gymnasium. She came to New York in 1895, 
 entered Barnard College in 1896, having previously won 
 the Trustees' Competitive Scholarship at Barnard and a 
 similar prize at Radcliffe College. She received the de- 
 gree of B. A. in 1899, and pursued her graduate studies 
 for the years 1899-1904 at Columbia University with 
 Mathematics as a major and History as a minor subject, 
 obtaining her Master's degree in 1900. She then dis- 
 continued academic work for several years, except for 
 one term of Physics and Chemistry in Cornell (1906) 
 and one year (1909-10) of Law in the New York Uni- 
 versity Law School. In 1910 she renewed her work in 
 Columbia University, majoring in History of Culture and 
 Thought, and attending courses mainly under Professors 
 J. H. Robinson, J. T. Shotwell and V. Simkhovitch. 
 
 323